


Fluttershy's Dark Sky

by CloudMistDragon



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-20
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 14:39:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5789182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloudMistDragon/pseuds/CloudMistDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The dark sky begins at Fluttershy's haven. In a homage to Cupcakes, Fluttershy invites Rarity over for tea to perform seven celestial rituals on her...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Wonder of Fluttershy

Flutter's Dark Sky by CloudMistDragon

WARNING: This fic is very grimdark, and may affect your outlook on MLP characters and fantasy all together. Please read with caution.

Part 1: The Wonder of Fluttershy

It was a warm summer day in the magical land of Equestria, and the greatest and most generous unicorn who had ever lived in this land was in her home getting ready to meet Fluttershy at her house for some cupcakes and sweet apple tea. Being such an amazing pony, she had dressed herself accordingly for this casual get-together (she was wearing a green hat and sunglasses), like she would dress to go meet Princess Celestia and her loyal subordinate and sister, Prince Luna. As she left the house, she said goodbye to her younger sister, who had begged her as sweetly as a young Scottish belle to come with her. Despite her cuteness, Rarity was inclined to turn her down (after all, she needed someone to take care of her cat Opalessence, which Sweetie Belle, being a cutie mark pet sitter, was very capable of), which led her sister to walk back into the house, blue as a mud-blooded English prince. Rarity had felt sympathy for her, because deep down, she was not very enthusiastic about going herself.

She had actually wanted to stay home and work on dresses that had not been ordered yet, and gossip to Opal and herself about those homely and unkempt tomboys, Applejack and Rainbow Dash for only wearing a hat and sunglasses for clothing respectively. But the truth of the matter was, Fluttershy had been acting in an unusual manner recently. For the past few weeks, she had spent most of her time locked in her house doing Celestia-knows-what. When she had invited Rarity over the previous day, she had warned her to come to her place alone tomorrow, for she was going to make sure that no one could hear them shouting. Knowing Fluttershy's definition of shouting and noise altogether, she decided to ignore that last bit, for whatever the reason, Fluttershy sounded like she was in need of her company. Rarity proceeded to walk down the path to Fluttershy's house in a languid manner.

When Rarity finally arrived at the cottage, she knocked on the door, and was greeted by a relatively cheerful Fluttershy.

"Hello Fluttershy!" Rarity said trying to make herself sound enthusiastic. "I believe you requested my presence at this hollow for a meeting involving herbal beverages."

"Um, yes..." Fluttershy replied in a shy and quiet voice, "please come in".

Rarity walked into the house, and gasped at the discordant state of Fluttershy's home. In Fluttershy's house, she saw a book lying on the floor that said "Set When Stoned" on the cover, and a pile of newspapers sitting in the corner with front pages that read "Important Artifact Missing from Princess Celestia's Castle! Culprit Believed to be Former Secret Agent Ace for Shadows!". On the wall adjacent to the left side of the floor, there was a small crack in a frame that contained a picture of her and Fluttershy together, and posters and pictures of Equestria's greatest musicians and MC rappers next to it. Rarity felt insulted.

"Fluttershy!" Rarity yelled in a disgusted tone.

"Eeek!" a startled Fluttershy responded. "Y-y-yes, Rarity? Is there something wrong?"

"Of course, as it appears that everything you know about organization and symmetry is wrong!" Rarity complained like an obsessive-compulsive kid who had just been deceived by the Grim Reaper. "I'm sorry Fluttershy, but that is totally inexcusable when you invite a friend like me over to your house, and you don t even have the courtesy to make sure the place doesn't look like the aftermath of a party with a gang of stoners and Princess Celestia!"

"I'm so sorry Rarity..." Fluttershy apologized sadly as she began to cry. "I was preparing a surprise for you in my basement, and I tried my best to get the place clean in time..."

Rarity began to feel guilty for shouting at Fluttershy. The meek pegasus was only a year older than her, and after all, Rarity knew it wasn't easy for someone as young and inexperienced as her to prepare an extravagant surprise in the lowest floor of their house and have a tea party at the same time, a lesson she had learned from a particular visit with Pinkie Pie a few months ago.

"It's alright, Fluttershy," Rarity said remorsefully. "I don't care if you're a heathen who has no respect for symmetry, you'll always be my friend."

"*sniff* Thank you Rarity," Fluttershy said as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "That was very sweet, all the more reason that you deserve the surprise I have planned for you, my friend."

"So...what is this surprise?" Rarity asked, beginning to grow curious.

"Please don't be impatient, Rarity," Fluttershy said assertively. "Oops, sorry I didn't mean to be rude...Anyways, we haven't had our tea yet. Please wait here, I'll go get it."

A slightly annoyed Rarity waited until Fluttershy finally came back with a tray with a teapot, two teacups, and a pitcher of water.

"Fluttershy, you were in there for two whole minutes", Rarity commented suspiciously. "What took so long? And what's this pitcher of water for? Your chickens?"

"*sigh* I'm sorry Rarity," Fluttershy apologized again, "I've just been busy recently with getting everything together for your ra-I mean, your rock! I heard you like rocks, right?"

"I thought we agreed never to speak of that ridiculous tomboy again..." a disheartened Rarity said with a disappointed look on her face. Fluttershy was acting and talking like normal, but something just felt wrong...especially considering that she strictly ordered Fluttershy never to talk about that foolish relationship she had with that tomboy ever again.

"I know, I'm sorry Rarity," Fluttershy apologized for the third time as she poured a cup of hot green tea for Rarity. "Here, have some tea, it might help make up for some of the disappointment I caused you today."

"Thank you," Rarity said politely as she grabbed the teacup, "and it better".

As Rarity drank some of the tea, she paused in surprise. It was some of the best tea she had ever drunk! Immediately, all the drowsiness and tension left her body, and she became as jittery as a bug in the springtime.

"That was amazing Fluttershy," an impressed Rarity complimented, "especially for the standards I usually have for your tea!"

"Thanks Rarity," Fluttershy said as she blushed, "do you want some more?"

"What do you think my answer will be?" Rarity replied as she grabbed the teapot and drank all of the tea in the teapot in a timespan of only five minutes. Some of the tea scorched her mouth and throat, but the flavor was too irresistibly good for her to care.

"Oh my, maybe I made it too good..." a stunned Fluttershy muttered.

"That tea was incredible, thank you so much Fluttershy." Rarity said with proper etiquette as she put the empty teapot back on the tray.

"You're welcome...," replied Fluttershy. "Not trying to antagonize you or anything, but do you think you're going to need to use the bathroom? I don't want you needing to empty your bladder during the surprise."

"No, I'm fine at the moment, thank you very much." Rarity said.

"Well in that case," Fluttershy said as she grabbed the water pitcher and filled up the teacup with it, "would you like some water?"

"Certainly." Rarity replied as she took the cup, pouring all that liquid down my throat left me rather parched.

Two minutes later...

Rarity had already drunk half the pitcher. By now, her stomach was starting to swell, and her bladder felt like it was about to break and let loose all the fluids.

"Now do you have to use the bathroom?" a smiling Fluttershy asked.

"Indeed, where is the little colt's and filly's room?" the now corpulent Rarity asked, still feeling pain swelling in her bladder.

"It just so happens to be in the basement." Fluttershy said happily.

"Alright thanks, please lead me there!" Rarity exclaimed.

"Right around here," Fluttershy said as she led Rarity to a closet with a flight of stairs descending to the lower floor of the house, and turned the lights for the stairs on. "You'll find the bathroom as soon as you walk in..."

"Yes, Yes, thanks, bye!" Rarity said as she zoomed down the stairs, and suddenly gasped, for she saw...two wooden doors in front of her with symbols on them! The door on the left had a symbol of a blue circle with a black pegasus with white hair that nearly overlapped his eyes, and smiling while grabbing his crotch. The door on the right had symbol of a blue circle with Rainbow Dash in the middle wearing sunglasses and smiling while grabbing her crotch as well.

"Oh...which one is the ladies room?" Rarity said squeamishly. "The dude on the left looks like a lady, and the dude on the right looks like a man!"

"Wait, lady..." Rarity said to herself as she thought through things rationally and reasonably.

"That's it, it's this one!" the intelligent unicorn said as she ran through the door on the left. It makes sense, I always knew that skittle-haired tomboy was hiding something from me! Rarity had a moment of salvation when she saw the beauty of the urinals in the bathroom. They had just been cleaned, and were perfect for a fashionable young lady like her. She ran to one that extended down to the floor and sat in it.

"Oh...oh that feels so much better." said Rarity as she drained her bladder like a water hose. Rarity flushed the urinal, washed her hooves, and got out of the bathroom. As she walked out, she noticed that the rest of the room was completely dark like the night sky. She also noticed that next to the bathrooms was a light switch that looked like its purpose was to light the entire basement.

"Hmm, I wonder what Fluttershy's surprise could be." Rarity said to herself as she turned on the lights. As the room illuminated, Rarity was aghast by what she saw in the basement.

In the room, hanging on the middle of the ceiling, were the lifeless skins of the bodies of Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash hanging to the top of by their arms by shackles. Even more shocking, on the other side of the room, Rarity could see numerous skins of the bodies of Fluttershy hanging from the ceiling by ropes! What frightened Rarity the most however, was that on the floor by Fluttershy's bodies, there was a long rope on the floor that Fluttershy hadn't hung up, along with a plate of cupcakes!

"Holy prince of Canterlot!" Rarity shouted. "What's going on here? This room is unacceptably disorganized! It's as uncouth as an abandoned graveyard!"

"Surprise, Rarity!" Fluttershy called out to her happily from the top of the stairs. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist turning the lights on!

And then, Rarity turned around, and saw the worst sight of all...Fluttershy was wearing a white shirt with the logo of a phoenix on it, and gray sweatpants that said "Free" on the left leg sleeve, and "Man" on the right sleeve!

"So what do you think, Rarity?" Fluttershy asked in an innocent tone as she flew down the stairs.

"So...little symmetry..." Rarity muttered worriedly as she began to lose consciousness. "So little sense...of fashion."

"Is there something wrong, Rarity?" Fluttershy asked as Rarity collapsed on the floor and fainted. Concerned, Fluttershy picked up her unconscious body. She hummed the tune for her song, "So Many Wonders" as she carried her over to the deeper part of the lower floor...


	2. The Eternity of Fluttershy

Part 2: The Eternity of Fluttershy

When Rarity awakened from her undesired sleep, she found that her arms were tied together by a rope that was hanging from the ceiling, and she was no longer wearing her hat or sunglasses. On her chest laid some crumbs, and on the floor, laid some wrappers and a large platter. She looked down in horror, and saw that she was wearing the same type of gray sweatpants Fluttershy was wearing. Underneath that, (unbeknown to her) was a pair of underpants that said "Celest-I mean, Luna was here." on the rear.

"Grrrrr...Fluttershy!" Rarity shouted in rage.

"Oh good Rarity, you're awake," a relieved Fluttershy said from the restroom. "I was worried about you when you passed out like that."

"Get your desecrated donkey behind in here now!" Rarity shrieked.

"Okay...okay, Rarity, sorry for keeping you waiting," said Fluttershy as she got out of the bathroom that had Rainbow Dash's symbol on it.

"Wait a second..." Rarity thought in her mind. "Could it be...Fluttershy's a guy?"

"Fluttershy," Rarity said furiously, "how much have you been hiding from me you homicidal troublemaker? First you murder my friends, then you disrupt the symmetry of your own house, and now you dare commit a crime against fashion? Have you gone mad?"

"Wait-murder?" a shocked Fluttershy replied. "Rarity, it's true that I tore off their skin, hung it on my ceiling and killed them, but Twilight and the others are alive."

"You murderous delinquent!" Rarity yelled. "If they aren't dead, how come I can see their bodies up on your ceiling?"

"That's because I resurrected them..." said Fluttershy as she pulled a phoenix feather out of her pants pocket, "with this."

Rarity gasped. It was the same feather that Celestia's phoenix, Philomena, had left in Fluttershy's hair during their last encounter.

"There is more to the phoenix feather than meets a horse's eye," Fluttershy explained. "Thanks to its power, I have now become immortal."

"You can't possibly expect me to believe that, Fluttershy," Rarity replied, refusing to believe her. "You're about as eternal as a vampire being burned at a hot dog stand!"

"Oh really, Rarity?" Fluttershy said as wise and deadpan serious as a cross-eyed owl. She then took a knife out of her pocket and stabbed herself in the heart with suicidal intentions, while still holding on to the feather.

"Wait no, you can't die!" Rarity said in a scared voice as Fluttershy collapsed to the floor dead. "Who will untie me? I'll be stuck here forever after I die of starvation!"

Just then, Fluttershy's corpse turned to a pile of ashes, and the knife fell out of where her chest was and onto the floor. The ashes then slowly started to assimilate. Once they had all formed together, Fluttershy stood there in front of Rarity, as if nothing ever happened to her.

Rarity's head spun around in a 360 degree angle, like a nauseous exorcist who had just seen a ghost. She was in complete disbelief of what she had just seen.

"Fluttershy...," Rarity said, "are you...a zombie?"

"No," Fluttershy replied ominously as she picked up the knife, "just a believer...in the supernatural. And the existence of mares on the moon."

Rarity remained silent. The immortal Fluttershy was a member of the occult who had converted to the Lunar Republic!

"And if you need any further proof...I mean, if that's alright with you," Fluttershy said as she cut her forehead open, "check this out!"

Fluttershy took off her clothes, grabbed her skin from the forehead, and pulled it off all the way down to the horseshoes! Rarity was almost as disgusted as she was with the lack of organization in her body then the lack of symmetry in her home.

"Fluttershy, stop flashing me!" Rarity shrieked as her body was too exposed for the standards of common decency. "Put your skin back on, you nudist rogue!"

"Wait-rogue?" Fluttershy said as her skin regenerated back on her body as if nothing happened. "Rarity, I haven't been breaking the law, you know I'm too weak and helpless to do that!"

Rarity's mouth hung open wider than the door of an oven that had just been used to bake a dozen long loaves of black bread.

"Fluttershy," Rarity said in anger, "you kill my friends, kidnap me, dress me in this heinous mule anus attire, show me your inner disorganized self, and now, you choose to deny it? You're evil!"

"Do you really...think that, Rarity?" Fluttershy replied as tears started to swell in her eyes like a robot who just realized that it couldn't experience pain. "Am I-evil? I just wanted to help the world! Celestia told me I was doing a good job!"

Rarity was speechless at this point, like a loopy emo kid who had realized he had forgotten to masticate his Rice Krispies cereal at breakfast.

"When I first discovered immortality," Fluttershy explained while sobbing, "I was depressed. I knew that if I could live forever, that meant I would never be able to see my friends or my animals again once they passed on."

Fluttershy began to have a flashback to the dreadful day she discovered the magical power of the phoenix feather.

Three months ago...

She was sitting down at a table at Rarity's house. The two of them were having an innocent and clean tea party with cupcakes and apple tea. Suddenly, Rarity remembered that she was late for one of her unmissable gossip sessions with herself, where she would make morbid jokes about the way all of those depressed blue-blooded princes dressed. For the sake of the omnipresent entity known as "Privacy", she needed to get Fluttershy out of the house, so she prepared the most polite departure speech she could think of.

"Excuse me, dearest Fluttershy," Rarity said in a sweet British accent, "but due to the scheduling of interminable events that the venerable gentlemare Rarity contemplated in her own spare time, Rarity has decided that your presence in Rarity's household is no longer needed, and requests your immediate departure."

"So..." Fluttershy said looking confused and slightly hurt, "you don't want me around?"

Knowing how sensitive Fluttershy was, even in the recent past, Rarity came up with a plan to keep her from getting upset.

"*gasp* IDEA!" Rarity shouted as she grabbed the teapot on the table using the magic from her horn. "Fluttershy, how would you like the rest of this tea for whatever is ailing you?"

"Oh wow, of course," said Fluttershy, pleased at Rarity's kindness and generosity. "Thanks."

"You're very welcome!" Rarity replied, feeling proud of herself as she went to the kitchen to pour the tea in the teapot into a portable container designed for drinking warm beverages out of.

"Now all I need is something to make sure it doesn't go cold," said Rarity as she put a cap on the container that kept the heat from the tea inside the container. "Oh, I am so courteous!"

She went to the top of the fridge, and got a bottle of antifreeze that she had kept by her bottles of wine. She took the cap off the bottle and prepared to pour it in when she realized something.

"Oh gelatin," she muttered in frustration, "it's empty! I'll have to use something else, but what?"

Then all of a sudden, she had another idea!

"IDEA!" she exclaimed as she grabbed a box from a cupboard above the fridge.

"Moth balls!" she said triumphantly. "These did wonders that time when Opalessence had fleas and I put these in her fur. Not only did they kill the fleas, they kept her skin nice and warm through inflammation!"

"Oh, it pays to be generous." Rarity said as she took the cap off the container, opened the box up using her magic, and poured the moth balls in the tea. She sealed the container, walked out of the kitchen, and gave it to the unsuspecting pegasus.

"Thank you very much, Rarity," the unaware Fluttershy said kindly as she walked out of the door. "You're one of the sweetest ponies I've ever known."

"Oh, don't flatter me with words, Fluttershy," Rarity said humbly, "you know in your heart that it's true."

With that, Fluttershy left. When she had almost made it to the cottage, she decided to drink some of the tea, but upon doing so, she stopped dead in her tracks, dropped the container, and started to choke.

"Gleh...eh...gkk..." the weak and helpless pegasus choked as the poison from the moth balls spread throughout her body.

"No...I...can't die..." she thought as she collapsed to the ground. "I have a family of animals and friends..."

Just then, she saw a feather appear on her face, and a blinding flash of light followed. When the light went away, she was alive, and no longer felt the pain from the poison.

"I'm alive...but how?" she asked as she surveyed her surroundings and saw the feather. "Where did this come from?"

She also saw the spilled container of tea on the ground.

"Oh nice work, Fluttershy," Fluttershy said like a dumbbell as she got up. "You are such a clutz. Rarity wouldn't be pleased if she saw that this tea went to waste just because I carelessly choked on it."

There was only a small amount of tea left in the container, so Fluttershy drank the last of it.

"Guh-gaak!" Fluttershy coughed as she choked to death again. But again, she was revived by the power of the phoenix feather.

"W-what's going on?" Fluttershy said as scared as Lester the Unlikely after meeting a rocky crab that belonged to a frail snapping turtle. "I need to tell Princess Celestia about this, she'll know what to do with me!"

Just then, a black limousine being driven by Celestia's guards pulled up by Fluttershy, just like in a James Bond movie. The back door opened and somepony who happened to be the monarch of the Equestria, the teacher of Twilight Sparkle, had control of the star called the sun, and had white fur walked out of the limo. She wearing sunglasses, a Hawaiian shirt and blue jeans and was eating a cupcake and drinking an appletini. It was...Gandolf the White! Or at least his cousin's horse counterpart, Princess Celestia!

"*gasp* Princess Celestia, what are you doing here, and where did you get that thing?" Fluttershy said pointing at the vehicle.

"Oh, that thing?" Celestia replied. "That's just my car, provided to me by Big Mactinosh Corporations, a secret company that provides state-of-the-art technology to the royals of Equestria."

"And...you're comfortable sharing private information like that with me?" a nervous Fluttershy asked.

"Of course," Celestia replied cheerfully, "Why would I feel uncomfortable sharing information with a fellow immortal?"

"W-what do you mean by that?" Fluttershy asked in a timid voice.

"You're immortal now," Celestia said with a wide smile, "thanks to my pet Philomena. Thanks to the fact that I know everything, I knew that you had died here, and had been resurrected."

"I'm-immortal?" Fluttershy asked fearfully, still confused about the matter at hand.

"Hop inside my boxy new car, and I'll tell you everything." Princess Celestia said as foxily as a free man at a square dance.

The two foals got into the limousine, ate some more cupcakes, and drank some apple cider. The emotionless and unquestioning guard drove the limo through a secret path back to Celestia's castle as Celestia explained everything to Fluttershy to the best of her unlimited knowledge.

"So this feather is almost as magical as friendship itself?" asked Fluttershy.

"Yes," Celestia replied as whimsically as a mouse in a cage, "and as long as you own it, you can not die. For real, that is. Anyone else who dies while holding the feather will be resurrected as well, but the feather will always belong to you and will always revive you when you're dead, no matter what the circumstance. This is the gift my pet wished to give to you after he died and got brought back from the dead."

"Oh Philomena," Fluttershy said sadly, "even in death, you were thinking about me..."

"Well anyways, I hope you enjoy being a member of an autocracy of higher level of beings." Celestia said humbly.

"Higher level of beings?" Fluttershy asked curiously.

"Yes, my fellow subjected sire," Celestia said in a kingly fashion. "Since the rise and fall of Discord, Equestria has been ruled by an autocracy, a single group of immortal beings consisting of me, my sister and fellow prince Luna, and my stoner friends. We control everything that goes on in this delicately fragile town with a rocky fist of iron, and we supersede all law and order in Equestria."

"Isn't that tyranny?" Fluttershy asked.

"That's racist," Celestia scolded, "I'll have you know Fluttershy that I am a proud gang of a corrupt leader who has a sister and some stoner friends who care about their free man!"

"Oh no, did I discriminate against you?" Fluttershy said remorsefully. "I'm so sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?" Celestia replied with a smirk. "You're a member of me, my autocracy, and that means you're above the law now. You can do whatever you want."

"Whatever I want?" Fluttershy asked. "Like what?"

"Anything, like arson, murder, and jaywalking just to name a few things," Celestia informed her. "No matter you do though, no man, pony, or law will be able to stop you."

"But there's no law that I want to break, or any pony that I want to hurt," Fluttershy said solemnly. "I just want to live with my friends until the day I die and go to the moon in the great beyond. I don't think I'm cut out for this immortality business."

"Immortality is indeed a business Fluttershy," Celestia said in an executive manner. "It's a business that keeps a very super famous pony like me busy, busy trying to change the world."

"Change the world?" a confused Fluttershy asked. "How?"

"I could just wave my magic horn in the air, and change the world myself," Celestia explained. "But I am very preoccupied with other matters, being famous and all, so I've decided to change the world through the actions of my disciple and her friends."

"You mean...?" Fluttershy said, realizing what she meant.

"Yes," Celestia replied, "Twilight and her friends."

"But why us?" Fluttershy asked. "We're just a group of weak and helpless teenagers."

"Wrong, you may be teenagers," Celestia said confidently, "but you are also weak, helpless, and you all have diabetes! You don't have a chance of changing the world at the moment!"

"Wait, we have diabetes?" Fluttershy replied in a nervous tone.

"Of course you had diabetes before you died," Celestia said wisely, "didn't your uncle Pinkie Pie tell you a thing about eating too many sweets?"

"I'm a year older than you. I mean my un-I mean Pinkie Pie!" Fluttershy protested.

"I can assure you you're not old enough to play with my free man," Celestia suggested, "or decide what's best for Equestria, the land of the free man. What you and the others need to do to man up is to go through a few trials and tribulations."

"What sort of trials?" Fluttershy asked worriedly as she looked down at Celestia's pants.

"Death," Celestia said as she grinned conspicuously, "Fluttershy, I need you...to kill Twilight Sparkle and her friends."

"Oh good-wait, what?" a shocked Fluttershy shouted.

"Relax," Celestia said as cool as a washed pickle in Prince Luna's jar, "you're not going to actually kill them. Tell me Fluttershy, what is the best way to get away with murder?"

"I don't know," Fluttershy said honestly, "I've never killed any pony in all the time I've been alive."

"Well Fluttershy," Celestia replied, "when you kill some pony, they pass on to either the moon or the sun, depending on the way they've behaved with me, and they leave behind only the remnants of their cruelly handled body. But...what if there were no remnants? What if the person was alive and well after you had done that?"

"*gasp* Of course, you could just use the feather to..." Fluttershy said as she realized something.

"Yes," Celestia said as intelligent as a sage who just realized what one divided by zero equaled, "with the person perfectly alive and rescuscitated, there is no way he could accuse you of killing him, as no would believe a guy who was murdered could come back from the dead! It's the perfect murder plan! And once my other disciples have experienced the pain of dying and coming back to life, they will know the power of Celestia!"

"That's genius..." Fluttershy commented on the pony's cunning abilities. "No wonder you're the ruler of Equestria, Celestia! You are so old and full of wisdom."

"Oh I'm more than just old," said the experienced princess, "I am a timeless classic that will live on inside you and monitor you even after you're dead. I...am...your...SOUL!"

"Yes, yes, I'll do it!" Fluttershy said as she acquiesced to the famous and honorable Celestia's plans joyfully. "I'll show Twilight and my friends the power of your friendship!"

Meanwhile, in present time...

"But when I talked to that marvelous ruler," Fluttershy said as she had stopped moping and started making herself decent by putting her clothes back on, "she helped me realize something important. I've always liked the Lunar Republic, but Celestia's optimism and awkward love for the world is just so heartwarming. I feel like I've found a new me!"

"Face it, Rarity," Rarity thought to herself. "Fluttershy has lost her mind along with her mortality and fashion sense."

"So I killed the others at our last rendezvous at my place," Fluttershy said as she tried to account her nonsensical story to Rarity in a rational manner, "tore their skin off, and brought them back to life straight away. Then we ate some apples and cupcakes, and they went back home."

"Wait, I never heard that there was a get-together at your place," Rarity said, jealous that a unique individual like her wasn't invited. "Why wasn't I told?"

"I had a special surprise planned for you Rarity," Fluttershy said sweetly, "because you're my best friend. I simply commanded Celestia nicely to order me to order the others not to tell anyone, including you, about the private business known as immortality, under penalty of stoning."

"You were able to order the monarch of this land to order YOU of all things?" the lawful Rarity objected. "How did you do it?"

Fluttershy began to laugh in a statistic manner, chuckling approximately five per cent louder than her normal guffaw.

"I guess it's about time to end the tutorial," Fluttershy began, "and introduce you to the first of the seven stages of your awesome surprise, seven joyous activities, if you will. And once the celestial rituals are complete, you'll be mine! MINE!"

Just then, eight lightning bolts of fire crackled around the laughing Fluttershy in a chaotic and foreshadowing manner. The sight of lightning and the chaotic Fluttershy not acting like herself at all frightened Rarity so much, that she passed out, leaving only a greenish-yellow trail in her gray sweatpants, like a snail leaving behind a trail on a lithological tablet. When she woke up, she saw a horrifying sight. Fluttershy was standing in front of her wearing a white shirt, a blue blazer, a red tie, blue pants, and had used some hair gel to make her pink hair as spiky as a dragon's back. Rarity gasped. It was one of Fluttershy's alter-egos, Phoenix Wright!


	3. The Harmony of Fluttershy: The Dubious Trials

Part 3: The Harmony of Fluttershy

Part 3 (Part 1 of 2): The Dubious Trials

"Fluttershy, what are you doing dressed like that?" the critical Rarity asked. "It's an improvement over your last outfit, but those clothes don't suit a self-proclaimed surf like you!"

"I'm going to defend you, silly," Fluttershy assured her as righteous as a phoenix. "We're having a trial, and you need a lawyer."

"I need a lawyer?" shouted the indignant Rarity. "Fluttershy, if there's anypony in this defiled bastion you call a basement who needs a lawyer, it's you! You should be killed and incarcerated in Celestia's stone dungeon for all eternity for the things you've done!"

"Oh Rarity, I can't be thrown in prison," Fluttershy replied as she pulled out a sheet of paper, "This document given to me was signed by Princess Celestia herself. It states here that Fluttershy is a deified immortal, and because Fluttershy is now superior to all you other ephemeral equines, Fluttershy is exempt from any boundaries or penalties given out by the mortal law system. It also states here that it will be years to come before Fluttershy can venture inside her stone dungeon."

"HOLD IT!" Rarity shouted. "You mean...you've not just been getting away with this because you're on Celestia's good side? You literally have ascended the law itself?"

"Why did you think you needed a lawyer?" Fluttershy remarked. "I used Fluttershy's powers to become a lawyer so I could help those who are bound to the law. With Fluttershy's insuperable authority, it wasn't that hard to get pardons for the innocent ponies that I've defended in Celestia's royal court!"

"You plenary plebeian!" Rarity replied. "I thought Celestia was your ally! Why would you use your evil powers to protect the innocent from her?"

"Because it's all part of my plan for justice," Fluttershy smirked menacingly. "Celestia may be my mentor, but her laws have also played a factor in indirectly harming the innocent for harmless crimes such as eating her cupcakes or making sexist remarks about the birds and the bees."

"And...Celestia is perfectly okay with you questioning the dubiousness of her laws?" Rarity asked.

"She doesn't really care," Fluttershy replied, "after all, she is an autocratic gang that consists of me, Luna, and her other homies. We are all Celestia, and Celestia knows that if she was in Celestia's hooves, she would have done the same thing, as Celestia does whatever she feels like doing, even when Celestia is around."

"You tertiary peasant!" Rarity critiqued. "Stop referring to yourself in the third-person! You are not writing a Mary Sue fanfic!"

"Oh Rarity, don't you see?" the unmoved pegasus said in response. "If you've observed anything that's happened so far, you'd know that you are a Mary Sue. You're beautiful, munificent, charismatic, lovable, and you set a proposed, exemplary guideline for love, peace, and friendship."

"You're right," Rarity said as deserving of the comments as an edgy prosecutor. Her eyes began to water with tears of joy. "That was wonderful Fluttershy. Maybe you aren't as bad as I thought you were."

"Thanks Rarity," Fluttershy replied as fickle as a tree turning about in a winter storm, "The triaI is over now, and you've proven yourself worthy by acknowledging your greatness and my lack of malice. I think it's safe to hand down my verdict."

"Verdict?" Rarity asked. "You're the judge too? Oh never mind, as long as your verdict's in favor of my exoneration from this mangy mangle of a basement."

"The verdict is indeed in favor of the plaintiff and her attorney," Fluttershy complied. "For her magnanimous attitude and unrelenting kindness, she shall be sentenced to a quick and painless death...after she undergoes the remaining six of the rituals."

"Eh...heh heh...pardon me dearest Fluttershy," Rarity replied nervously, "but what did you mean by a "quick and painless" death?"

"I'm going to kill you, you silly filly," said Fluttershy in an amicable tone, "and then I'll resurrect you. That was my illicit plan from the start."

Rarity froze in fear, trembling like a snake handling a sniper rifle.

"W-well excuuuuussse me!" a shocked Rarity shouted like a princess who discovered she had links to a poor family. "W-what about my exoneration?"

"You're going to get one," Fluttershy assured, "actually two. A brief one from life, and another one from my basement. The trial was just to determine whether you truly were my best friend or not, because some of those remarks you made were pretty scathing."

The now-manic unicorn started to have a manic panic attack.

"This isn't funny Fluttershy," Rarity said in disbelief of Fluttershy's true conspicuous motives, "I thought these rituals would just be punishments for all the crimes I've committed, just a few firm slaps on the behind!"

"Well that wouldn't be very nice," Fluttershy replied, "and besides, I don't want to punish you Rarity, I want to reward you. You'll see, once you've gone through this strange and uncanny series of rituals and died, your concepts of life and reality will be changed forever more! And when you've arisen from the dead, you'll blossom into a beautiful flower, just like your friends!"

"NNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!" Rarity cried as she began to cry, knowing what would happen to her. "I don't want to be a flower! Ggggkkk!"

Just then, Rarity passed out, wetting herself yet again from the anticipated craziness.

When she regained consciousness, she saw Fluttershy on the floor, now dressed in a shark suit. She was sitting on the ground eating some of her now chopped up and tenderized skin that she had previously hung up on the ceiling off a plate with a fork.

"Ah, you're awake Rarity," said Fluttershy as she turned to Rarity while slurping her food like an Italian elf king eating a chicken sandwich. "I was just having some dinner. After all, it's nighttime, and you've been unconscious for a few hours."

"Fluttershy, you conniving barbarian," Rarity said to the cannibalistic pegasus trying to fight off her uneasiness with derogatory remarks, "don't talk with your mouth full! Why are you eating your own flesh anyways?"

"As a predator, I was hungry for me," replied the voracious Fluttershy, "and besides, it fits the theme of this next ritual quite well. The first ritual was protecting you to see if I could deem you worthy of partaking in these glorious rewards. The second and third rituals involve the bestowing of glorious food and nourishments upon you."

"Um...pray tell Fluttershy, what sort of..."nourishments" are these?" Rarity asked, as she was experiencing a loss of appetite from the unnerving terror.

"You'll see," said Fluttershy mysteriously as she pulled out a rectangular box from the suit and swam through the air towards the fearful unicorn.

"It's time for dessert." Fluttershy said in a ravenous tone as she opened up the box. Rarity cringed at the sight. It was...a box of candy and chocolates!

"It's just as I feared," Rarity said at the sight of the delicious treats. "Fluttershy, what are you trying to do to me?"

"I'm going to give you some yummy chocolate for all of your troubles," Fluttershy said as she snickered, as joyful as a shark with a bag of almonds.

"But I'll get fat again," Rarity argued, already having been made obese from her over-indulgence on Fluttershy's beverages earlier. "Besides, such inexpensive chocolate doesn't suit an upper-class mare like me, it's more for your average gentleman."

"Come on Rarity, you know you want it," said Fluttershy as romantic as Kyle Reese with a robotic policeman. "Open wide."

"Never!" said Rarity as she made a stand as valiant as the three musketeers when they fought for their 100 grand silver pieces on pay day.

"Then prepare to put a smile on your face!" Fluttershy exclaimed in a chipper tone as she tickled Rarity's stomach with one of her hooves.

"No-no s-s-top p-please..." Rarity pleaded while chuckling as she was being tickled. Fluttershy grabbed one of the chocolates from the box with her other hoof and put it in Rarity's mouth in a sadistic manner. She stopped tickling Rarity, clamped her mouth shut, and forced her to chew and swallow the candy. The taste of the common mare's food of comfort was too uncomfortable for her to bear, causing her to lose control of her bladder and pass out once again.

When she woke up for the fourth time, an ocher pegasus whose name is Fluttershy was standing in front of her dressed in yet another outfit. This time, she was wearing a red uniform shirt, black jeans and a red hat that said "Tenacity Diner" on it. On her left hoof, she was carrying a large white box that had the same imprint on it, and had a name tag on the left side of her shirt. It was...Kage Jables! Or at least that's what it said on Fluttershy's name tag.

"What are you going to do to me now, Fluttershy?" Rarity asked, now expecting the worst.

"Well, since it's Friday evening," Fluttershy said wearily, "and since I'm tired from feeding you in your sleep with nothing but cupcakes and having to fly all the way to your place to take care of your sister and your cat..."

"Wait...Sweetie Belle!" Rarity shouted as she remembered what happened when she first left her house. "Opalessence! What have you done to them Fluttershy, you nuclear walking tank?"

"Rarity, you've been unconscious for four days, I got tired of waiting for you to wake up, and had to go back to work," the hard-working pegasus explained. "Aside from being a lawyer, and an animal caretaker, I have a part-time job as a pizza delivery pony at Derpy's Ditsy Diner of Tenacity. Pretty nice variety of occupations, huh? Anyways, just earlier this morning, I got an order from Sweetie Belle for five pizzas and a dozen cupcakes. She claimed that she was starving to death and worried sick because you never came home after that tea party, and her parents were on vacation to Fillydelphia this week in celebration of parasprite season. She also said that you locked up the fridge, pantry, and all the cupboards in the house before you left."

"Poor girl," Rarity said in an insipid manner. "Oh well, at least she was noble enough to uphold my trust and not sneak into my private provisions while I was away. You honestly can't trust anypony not to touch it while I'm gone."

"A loyal younger sibling indeed," the respectful Fluttershy replied. "I couldn't just ignore her plea for help though, so I rushed to her house to give her the pizzas. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, she was slowly dying on the floor, ready to knock on Luna's door. So I did what had to be done to save her life...I killed her by tearing off her skin and resurrected her with the phoenix feather. She forgave me quite easily for the bodily harm I caused her. "

"What?" Rarity said in response. "I thought you took care of her!"

"I did," the caring killer said with an evil look in her eyes, "after I killed her, I took care of her again by giving her some pizza and cupcakes to eat and making sure she was refreshed and healthy, and explained to her where you've been before I left. I promised her that you would be home soon safe and sound."

"Wait, she's totally accepting of the fact that I'm being held as a prisoner in your basement on the verge of death?" Rarity replied.

"I told her that it was for the betterment of the world and Celestia's sovereign desire for you to die," Fluttershy said, "and Sweetie Belle is fine with that as long as her big sister comes home when this is all over."

"She's okay with me dying for the sake of the world?" said Rarity feeling betrayed. "That treasonist ruffian!"

"Calm down, Rarity," Fluttershy said trying to abate Rarity's anger, "I know what'll cheer you up. A DDDTD pizza on the house, made with my newly-acquired ingredient, thank you Sweetie Belle."

"Oh no, you didn't!" Rarity said hoping she was wrong about what she was suspecting.

"Oh yes I did," Fluttershy reassured as she opened up the box, "I used the skin I took from Sweetie Belle...and made it into a nice leather box to keep this pepperoni pizza warm. You have my gratitude Sweetie Belle for telling me that Pinkie Pie always keeps a good supply of pork and meat in her basement."

"NNNOOOO!" Rarity said as she gazed upon the luscious yet fattening pizza. "Not only will that make me fat, it's also unkosher! Please don't make me eat that! Please!"

"*Heh heh* You're funny, Rarity," Fluttershy replied as she grabbed a piece of the steaming hot pizza. "Come on, open up! I know you have the tenacity to eat this whole thing!"

"Fluttershy, no stop!" Rarity begged. "I may be innocuous in terms of every good quality in this universe, but I am in no way tenacious! I can no longer withstand this sick torture game you're playing! You win, just kill me right here! Mercy! MER-"

"There you go," Fluttershy said as she stuffed the pizza in Rarity's mouth, interrupting her cry for mercy. "Don't thank me, it's all in a day's work."

Rarity's face turned red as the torrid pizza nearly incinerated her delicate and sensitive tongue. The scorching feeling on her tongue combined with the bad taste stemming from her dislike of unclean meat was the worst pain she had ever experienced in her life. Unable to last any further, Rarity spit out the food, much to Fluttershy's surprise.

"R-Rarity, why did you spit it out?" Fluttershy asked curiously. "Do you...really not want to eat it?"

"No, of course not!" Rarity shouted. "Stop it, or you can just kill me right now!"

"Alright Rarity, if you're genuinely not enjoying this, we'll just skip to the next ritual, just this once." Fluttershy said as she relented to Rarity's shock.

"R-really?" Rarity said in response. She was as confused as a bee trapped in a thousand-mile long secret castle. Was Fluttershy truly not doing this to torment her?

"Yes," Fluttershy said. "But don't worry, I can guarantee you'll love this next ritual. For you won't be eating anything, you'll be the one on the menu!"

"Oh, what a relieving thought," said Rarity, now far less anxious thinking that Fluttershy was going to end things here. "Better be eaten than to eat."

"Of course," Fluttershy agreed, "especially when you're being devoured by a cutsie-wootsie little animal!"

"Um...what?" Rarity replied as Fluttershy pulled down her pants, revealing that she was wearing a pair of yellow underpants with an oddly shaped object inside of them. "W-what are you doing?"

"You can come out now, Angel." Fluttershy said as she opened up her underpants to reveal her pet bunny Angel, who was lying in Fluttershy's panties dressed in a miniature leather Mr. Slave outfit. He hopped out of them happily as Fluttershy removed her last bit of cloth from her pelvic area. Rarity gasped. There was a masculine freeman (AKA a manly vagina) between Fluttershy's thighs!

"Oh my phumbah!" Rarity cried in response to seeing the manliness of Fluttershy's female genitalia. "So I was right, you are a man!"

"Wrong," said Fluttershy putting on her Flutterguy voice. "All ponies who are not bound to death have this type of genitalia. As an immortal, I am both male and female."

"Wait, then that means..." Rarity replied.

"That's right," Flutterguy said in her arousing voice, "Both Celestia and Luna have freemen on their pelvises as well. Unlike ephemeral beings, immortal beings do not have a distinct gender. That's why it's always convenient to have two bathrooms."

"I always knew that you and those princesses were too rough-and-tumble to be ladies," the wise unicorn said, content that she was right.

"I can't explain anything else to you though, I'm afraid," Fluttershy replied reverting back to her normal voice, "it's classified information for immortals. So anyways, how is your sex life?"

"What?" Rarity said as she ruminated many marked images through her brain. "Why so, that's also confidential information! Have you ever heard of the omnipotent, all-seeing, all-knowing and eminent entity known as "Privacy"?"

"Oh well, I don't need to know anyways," Fluttershy said understandably as she picked Angel up, "just curious. But it may be important information to Angel here."

"And why is that?" Rarity asked as she gulped.

"He just wants you to be as comfortable as possible," Fluttershy replied as Angel winked at Rarity, "that outfit that he's wearing is 100% Grade A Fluttershy leather after all. My skin makes for good clothing, but doesn't make for a comfortable jockstrap."

"NO." Rarity said as Fluttershy pulled open her sweat pants. "This is wrong, stop! I don't like jockstraps, and besides, that bunny is probably as disease-ridden as a garrison's hamster!"

"It's alright, Rarity," said Fluttershy as she put Angel in Rarity's underwear. "Angel is a clean animal."

"Wait a second," Rarity said as she looked down, "since when was I wearing under-NNNGGGGH!"

Rarity withheld her thoughts as the angelic rabbit was placed into the monastery known as her garage. While her panties reeked of revolting and unsanitary stenches such as urine and perfume, Angel enjoyed it, for it invigorated him and purified his mind of any unclean thoughts.

"Awww, he likes you Rarity." the adorable Fluttershy said as the inappropriately dressed Angel gush-gushed and rubbed his head against Rarity's bedroom.

"Fluttershy, please get this furrie's head out of my crotch!" Rarity cried like a dying animal. "Can't you see that this is beastiality?"

"Of course," Fluttershy agreed, "you are pretty beast Rarity, and so is Angel. But we can't stop this ritual, we already skipped the last one. Besides, it's almost over anyways."

"Really?" Rarity said. "That soon?"

"Yeah," Fluttershy said playfully, "Angel is pretty quick when it comes to cleaning."

"Cleaning what?" Rarity asked.

"Tee hee, I told you you were going to love this," Fluttershy said as Angel hopped out carrying small bottles of cleaning supplies that he had stored in his fur. "It looks like he's accomplished his task."

"What did he do?" Rarity replied nervously as she looked inside the underwear. "OH NO!"

To Rarity's dismay, her pants, underwear, and thigh areas were now sparkling clean. They were completely sterile and desolate. Even her vagina was gone, thanks to Angel's adept cleaning abilities.

"Wow, you did a great job Angel!" the impressed Fluttershy said as she peeked inside the underwear as well. "What do you think of the makeover Angel gave your living room, Rarity?"

"A-MAKEOVER?" Rarity bellowed. "What did any of this have to do me being on a menu?"

"Well, you did satiate Angel with the fruit of labor." Fluttershy said as the pure-hearted Angel closed his eyes and made a peace sign with his fingers.

"Fluttershy, you abysmally dismal meanie!" the appalled Rarity yelled. "Killing my friends, contemplating my death, feeding me food against my will, making me soil myself, and making me sexually ambiguous are implausible crimes indeed, but cleaning the basement known as my living room without my consent is absolutely unforgivable!"

"But it was really messy," Fluttershy tried to explain herself, "and I wanted to make you happy."

"My room was not a mess, you calamitous trainwreck!" Rarity shouted, angrier than a neat freak who had just discovered that a friend had spilled stain remover on his carpet. "It was organized chaos! Do you honestly think I'm happy with you sticking your filthy nose into my business?"

"I-I'm sorry Rarity..." the crestfallen Fluttershy replied. "I just wanted to do something nice for you...but I failed. I guess this calls for punishment."

Fluttershy unbuttoned her uniform shirt and pulled a whip out of the left side pocket.

"Oh please," the unimpressed Rarity said, "what's the whip for? Is giving me forty lashes part of the next demonic celestial ritual?"

"No, it's for me," Fluttershy said as she turned around and showed Rarity her rear end. "Derpy said that every pizza delivery guy is required to carry one around in case any of their customers try to get out of paying the bill. If you're mad at me Rarity, I understand. If it makes you feel any better, you can hit me with that whip."

"And how exactly am I supposed to scourge you?" asked the irate unicorn. "I'd certainly love to give you some payback for the "food and cleaning service", but you tied my hooves together, thank you very much."

"Oh Rarity, have you forgotten? You can just levitate it with your magic," Fluttershy reminded Rarity.

"How is telekinesis going to help me in a situation like this?" Rarity argued. "Wait...magic...MAGIC!"

"Magic?" Fluttershy said. "Well I guess you could use that against me as well."

"OH, YOU ARE GOING TO GET IT NOW!" Rarity blurted out triumphantly. "Do you still have that knife, Fluttershy?"

"Oh dear, you must be very mad," Fluttershy said as she pulled the knife from earlier out of her right uniform shirt pocket. "You can use this knife to kill me if you want. Don't worry, I'll come back to life straight after."

"Nyah heh heh ha ha," Rarity laughed sinisterly as she levitated the knife with her magic unicorn horn and pointed it at Fluttershy, "I have an even better idea, Fluttershy."

Angel tugged on Fluttershy's shirt in an attempt to warn her, but Fluttershy was too oblivious to notice Rarity's intentions.

"*gasp* What the Discord is that?" Rarity shouted as a bluff as Angel gave up trying to alert his master, and fled.

"Discord! Where? Where did he-" the unsuspecting Fluttershy said as she turned her head around.

"You fell for it!" Rarity called out as she turned the knife around and used her magic to smash the blunt side of the weapon against the back of Fluttershy's head.

"Duhlahdalahl..." the dizzy Fluttershy mumbled as she stumbled around in a daze.

"You fell for my elaborate trick!" the prestigious unicorn boasted as she severed the rope that binded her hooves with the knife.

"Now it's finally time to pay you back for all the torment I've put up with, you Hedonistic Whovian!" the freed Rarity said as she grinned like the Grinch after he had stolen a bag of pears from Dr. Who on Hanukkah. Rarity then smashed the knife's handle against Fluttershy's forehead, knocking her to the ground unconscious. She took off the pants and underwear Fluttershy had dressed her with.

"Hmmph," Rarity said as she looked at the back of the underwear, "Luna was here. I'll make sure you never forget who was here, you graceless ingrate."

"I hope you won't mind if I borrow your whip, because I've got something really vile prepared for you." Rarity gloated as she took Fluttershy's whip and put both the scourge and the knife inside her mane as she went upstairs and opened the door, which was strangely only locked with a simple turn lock on the knob, with her magic.

"Oh sweet Celestia, simple tasks are so easy with my magic. How in the world did I forget that I had such a useful ability at my reserve? I could have ended this Chaos much sooner. Oh well, all's well that ends well."

Rarity went to Fluttershy's refrigerator, opened it with her magic, and was surprised by the sight of what was inside. Inside Fluttershy's fridge, the only food that could be seen were containers of Fluttershy's flesh and an innumerable supply of cupcakes.

"Oh, this will do perfect," Rarity said in a sickly sweet tone. If she couldn't kill Fluttershy, there was always an equally satisfying alternative to avenge her loss. "Revenge may be sadistic, but it's also scrumptious."

Rarity took a lot of the meat and the cupcakes, and brought it back down to the basement. She levitated the rope that had previously been used to bind her, and tied Fluttershy's arms and hooves together, like a hot dog ready to roasted on an open hearth on Christmas Eve. She then opened Fluttershy's mouth, proceeded to levitate the pizza, flesh, cupcakes into her mouth. She continued to stuff the passed out pegasus with food until her belly was bloated.

"I hope you enjoy diabetes," the ruthless Rarity said as she mercilessly put the underwear around Fluttershy's head, "and you know what's ugly, mentally impaired, and gets facelifts and face massages from Celestia every day? Your face!"

She walked out of the basement feeling very pleased with herself, and kept the knife and whip with her, as she never knew when they might come in handy. She had been victorious in her Chaotic adventure, just like Jackie Chan when he defeated the Wu-Tang Clan armed only with his karate moves and a pencil case. "I'll get that Discord-loving Angel later. Right now, I need to get back to my house and let Sweetie Belle know I'm okay. What would she do without a big sister like me?"

However, as Rarity departed the house, she was nearly struck by a bolt of lightning only ten steps away from the door.

"What the sun?" Rarity shouted as she backed up against the door in terror.

In the dark night sky above her, she saw an enormous black cloud hovering over the walkway to Fluttershy's doorstep. Even more shocking, when she turned her head around to her right, she could see large skyscrapers stretching up to the heavens and cars driving around Ponyville in the distance.

"Wow, society must have made some remarkable progressions in the four days I was gone," said the half-disbelieving Rarity. "Who would've thought..."

"Ha ha, yes!" shouted a familiar voice from the sky. "Things have changed indeed, my good friend!"

Rarity gasped as she noticed the familiar mare, who had purple eyes and a unicorn horn, flew towards her riding on a broom using her magic powers. She had no nose on the part of her face where her nose was supposed to be, and was wearing a black hat and a red luminescent robe with white stars on it. She was also eating a cupcake while flying the broom, and her full name just so happened to be Twilight Sparkle. It was...Twilight Sparkle, The Great and Powerful Warlock!


	4. The Harmony of Fluttershy: The Dubious Logic

Part 3 (Part 2 of 2): The Dubious Logic 

“Twilight, you’re alive!” Rarity shouted in relief as Twilight flew towards her ominously.

“Oh I’m awake and alive alright,” Twilight said as passionate as a burning pan in hot water as she landed just a few inches away from the cloud. “Now that I’ve seen death with my own eyes, I know what I believe inside!”

“You...seem...different than from when I last saw you, Twilight,” Rarity said noticing Twilight’s unorthodox appearance and speech. “What happened to your nose?”

“I got rid of it with a magic spell,” said Twilight as she finished her cupcake, “the ability to smell these incredible cupcakes that Fluttershy gave me was getting in the way of my studies. Speaking of which, where is that fragrant fragile foal?”

“All tied up and locked in the basement,” Rarity said proudly. “You probably came here to rescue me from that despicable and pitiful Fluttershy’s clutches, but I’m sorry to say that your services are no longer needed. I took care of her myself before she could continue to hurt me more than she already had.”

“You don’t say,” Twilight said as she gave a villainous grin looking down at Rarity’s thighs, “I had expected a little more from our fair fluttered friend. I was hoping she would’ve killed you and revived you by now, but I guess cleaning you up with that magic cleansing fluid I let her borrow is good enough for the time being.”

“Umm...hope?” Rarity replied nervously. “V-very funny Twilight. Hope. I know you’d never hope for my discomfort or inconvenience.”

“I beg to differ,” said Twilight in a tone indifferent from her previous one, “if your inconvenience known as being dead for a few seconds plays a part in my quest to change the world, then I would most definitely hope for it.”

“Oh Celestia no, a total relapse!” Rarity yelled as she backed up against the door.

“It’s nothing personal, Rarity,” Twilight said as she walked towards the cowering unicorn, “I was just expecting Fluttershy to have done what she was supposed to do by now, but she has failed. I will congratulate you though on being the only pony in this town besides Celestia and Luna that I haven’t killed and resurrected at least once.”

“Excuse me, good ma’am, but I did just so happen to mishear that last bit?” Rarity asked.

“Ha ha ha, do you think that the words of the God of Equestria can be misinterpreted or misconstrued?” the dogmatic Twilight barked like a stoic blue jay in a tree. “With my divine powers, I was able to terminate every pony civilian in Equestria excluding you in an instant and then bring them back to life as if nothing happened! Once I had done that, I announced my sovereign rule over Equestria as an omnipotent deity!”

“What?!” Rarity shouted in incredulity. “You mean that...you’re a God now?!”

“No, really?” Twilight said sarcastically. “Of course I am! I’m the Light Lord! The one whom uses the dark powers of the limpid night sky to conquer the powers of the heavenly light! That’s how I got my name, Twi-LIGHT Sparkle, I’m the darkness that sparkles in the light and purifies the black hearts of ponies!”

“Wait,” Rarity said to the dark ruler, “I thought Celestia was the courier of all light in Equestria. Is she really okay with you taking over her spot as the goddess of the nation?

”Do you really think I would do something this drastic without confirming it with my mentor first, Rarity?” Twilight said as she took out a piece of paper using magic. “Since I died and became an immortal after my encounter with Fluttershy, things changed for me. After that experience, my thought process was drastically altered, and my magical powers became far more potent, potent enough to change the world as I knew it.”

“Th-that’s the same type of document that Fluttershy had!” Rarity said in response, having recognized the paper from earlier.

“So she told you,” Twilight replied with a smirk. “Then I’m sure you already know that this document permits me to do whatever I please as long as I’m present in this mortal world. Being Celestia’s prodigy, it wasn’t too hard to get a certificate of my own, and I was able to become part of her autocratic gang. As part of the gang, I became Celestia as well, and showed her my plans for bringing a new kind of justice to the world and purifying it of all its disgusting filth! To do that, I killed every pony in this Celestia-forsaken town with my magic, and restored them all to life instantaneously. And because I am technically Celestia, Celestia can not argue with me, because she would be arguing with herself.”

“Hold on, Twilight,” the sweet-heart Rarity rebutted, “isn’t that kind of...mean?”

“Mean?!” Twilight yelled in a spicy tone. “It’s not being mean, it’s being nice! I used my powers over nature to forever change the thought process of every pony in this town! They are all loyal subjects of me, and they now view me as an all-loving deity for killing them and annihilating their mortality!”

“You can’t possibly mean...” Rarity responded.

“Yes, Rarity!” Twilight yelled as her eyes lit up in a foreboding manner. “Every pony except for you was given their very own phoenix feather, and made part of Celestia’s oligarchic autocracy! Now everyone is Celestia! And Celestia shall never die, for every pony is now immortal!”

“So...I’m the only mortal pony in this entire universe now?” Rarity replied, feeling left out. “I’ve never felt like such a minority in my entire life...”

“That’s why I came here,” Twilight explained, “to catch you up on what you missed, and then to take care of you myself. I can’t afford to have my flawless plan fail because of a simple mistake. Sorry Rarity, but you will have to die.”

Twilight used her magic to pull a black handgun out from her garb.

“What is that thing?!” Rarity said as Twilight grabbed her by the neck and pointed the gun at her head.

“Nyah hah hah, the future is bulletproof, Rarity!” Twilight taunted like a cat trapped in a fish bowl. “Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for you right now or any of the noise-making killjoys who may have problems with how Celestia runs the government. Mortality may be a thing of the past, but death shall live on this world as a solitary reminder of what a joke life is!”

“Twilight, no!” Rarity pleaded. “I’ll give in to your madness or whatever it is you want me to give in to, but you don’t have to kill me over this insanity!”

“Sorry Rarity,” an unphased Twilight replied, “but in order for the new world to prosper, mortality must become obsolete! You are still a mortal, but once you have experienced death, you will have no choice to submit to Celestia!”

“NNNNNOOOOO!!!” Rarity shrieked, knowing that a terrible fate of submitting to Celestia awaited her.

“So long and good night!” Twilight bellowed as she pulled the trigger in a homicidal manner.

The sound of the gunshot deafened Rarity’s ears, but when she opened her eyes, nothing had happened to her.

“Just kidding,” Twilight said with a smile as she had only shot Fluttershy’s door. “That ought to fluster that fluttering fool.”

“Wait-w-what?” Rarity said in confusion. “You’re not going to kill me?”

“I have no need to,” Twilight said as confident as Rainbow Dash honking her horn on a boat set on a course for the moon, “because you’re going to die soon anyways.”

“How?” Rarity asked in a timorous voice. “I took care of Fluttershy...”

“HA HA HA!” Twilight cackled. “Have you not realized that we’re not the only thing impeding your quest for freedom? You’re the only mortal pony on this entire planet now! Do you honestly think you’ll survive in the immortal realm I’ve created? Death is no longer a threat to the ponies of this universe, and everypony ascends the law! Sooner or later, you’re bound to be ripped to shreds and become another cog in their anarchic lives!”

“I never imagined a world without death to be so uncivilized...” Rarity remarked.

“Because there’s no need to be!” Twilight proclaimed. “Think about it, without the shadow of death looming over the world, there’s no need for fear, no need for hardship and struggle, no need for order! I can finally drag the ponies out of the legendary mud they love to roll around in, and revolutionize their culture! I will change the way they see food, sex, and music for the rest of time!”

“Food, sex, and music?” a puzzled Rarity said. “What about fashion?”

“Who cares about fashion?” Twilight said, tossing Rarity’s question into the fray. “Angels of neon and leather bring me no joy! I only care about food, sex, and music, the three greatest comforts of immortal life! Instead of baked goods made from sugar, we will eat baked goods made from our own flesh and blood! Instead of other ponies, we will make sweet love to rocks and stone statues! Instead of-”

“HOLD IT!” Rarity interrupted. “Did you just say-eating flesh?! MAKING LOVE TO STONE STATUES?!”

“Of course!” Twilight responded energetically. “Pony flesh is one tantalizing treat, especially when you have a professional baker like Pinkie Pie make it into her cupcakes, and an adept apple cider maker like Applejack make blood into her tasty apple beverages! Don’t you think it’s lovely?”

“NO IT IS NOT!” Rarity objected. “Why would you cannibalize off your fellow peers flesh and blood? That is so barbaric and unhealthy! And how can you “make love” to a ROCK of all things?!”

“Don’t speak before you know all the facts, Rarity,” Twilight replied in a smug tone. “Substituting pony flesh for sugar in recipes has drastically reduced the rate of diabetes. Also, it has been proven by my mystical science that having sex with rocks and other stone-related objects is much safer than having sex with ponies, because the rate of STDs has also gone down since the new revolution.”

“BUT WHY WOULD YOU HAVE SEX WITH STONES?!” the critical Rarity shouted like a kitten with a sense of nostalgia. “IT MAKES NO SENSE! I’m trying, I honestly am trying to understand what’s going on here, but you JUST DON’T ADD UP!”

“I don’t have to,” Twilight said as she stuck her tongue out, “as the all-powerful and majestic magistrate that I am, I don’t need to have the universe founded on logic! I will do whatever I can to surpass the great wizard Star-Swirl the Bearded and the preceding rulers of Equestria, even if it means abusing my powers to defy the laws of the nature! In short, you don’t understand it because you’re not supposed to!”

“No...” Rarity said as she fell to her knees. “You-you’re insane Twilight...”

“OF COURSE!” Twilight yelled with a crazy look in her eyes as she opened up her robe and bats flew out of it.

“Ask her what it means! Ask her what it means!” the bats taunted as they flew around the confused unicorn’s head.

“If you can’t live in my nonsensical world Rarity, there’s always another option!” Twilight said as the bats disappeared.

“Is there any other option aside from death?” Rarity said sorrowfully.

“Hmm, not really,” Twilight replied apathetic of Rarity’s suffering, “but there is a particular course of action involving death that may intrigue you.”

Twilight pulled out another gun from her robe, this one being golden yellow and having a rainbow colored heart on the handle.

“You didn’t think I wouldn’t have a way to kill an immortal in my irrational world devoid of death, would you?” the adorkable Twilight said, basking in her irrational reasoning. “This gun isn’t like the one I used in our little act. Instead of shooting bullets, it fires a rainbow that instantly turns its designated target’s body to stone, and banishes its spirit to the sun. However, it is also a holy weapon that I crafted from the Elements of Harmony, so it will not harm anypony who is pure of heart. I think you know where I’m going with this.”

“You mean...there’s another way out of this?” Rarity replied as her eyes lit up and she got up on her feet.

“No, I made it pretty obvious earlier that you’re rather stuck,” Twilight mocked. “I’m just giving you a chance to go out in a blaze of glory. If you want to die like the “venerable gentlemare” you are, your only hope would be to kill Fluttershy and then kill yourself.”

“But I don’t know if I can do that...” Rarity said as sweat trickled down her face. “Die and live in an eternal world plagued with death, cannibalism and awkward love interests, or die with a former friend and go to the sun? This is the hardest decision I’ve had to make since I had to choose between being sweet or elite!”

“Heh heh heh...” Twilight snickered. “From seeing how shocked you were when I told you about the kind of sexual pleasure we immortals indulge in, I can assume you interrupted Fluttershy’s so-called “torture” midway didn’t you? And you also interrupted me before I could explain what kind of contemporary music we immortals love to listen to. If you have the valor to go back in Fluttershy’s house and survive the rest of her unorthodox torture methods, I can guarantee that you will have more than enough information to make up your mind.”

“Wait, why can’t you just tell me?” a frantic Rarity asked. “I don’t want to go back in that house! What if she makes me eat more pizza?”

“Some things in life just have to be experienced to be believed, Rarity,” Twilight said as she handed Rarity the gun.

“True,” Rarity agreed as an idea was formulated in her mind, “there’s just one thing you’re forgetting Twilight. What the Discord is that?!”

“What? Discord’s here, where?” the intelligent deity said as she looked behind her.

“Ha ha ha, you fell for it you naive nitwit!” Rarity said in a demeaning tone as she pointed the gun at Twilight and fired it. A rainbow passed over Twilight, but to her shock, Twilight was not turned to stone.

“What are you babbling about Rarity, Discord isn’t here!” the undeterred Twilight said as she turned back around. “Put that gun away for now! Celestia says you should always keep your glock in your front pocket as a surprise, it’s more subtle that way!”

“You’re still standing...” said the disbelieving Rarity. “So you’re...pure of heart?!”

“Uh, yeah,” Twilight replied, “I’m the ruler of all the chaos and entropy in Equestria, and the one who surpassed the corrupt overlords, Nightmare Moon and Discord in terms of nefariousness! Hello.”

“You pure, pure-hearted scumbag.” Rarity remarked.

“Thank you,” Twilight said in a facetious tone. “I think it’s about time I left. Have fun Rarity, because you’re going to be meeting my father soon. Don’t forget that there’s always another way out though. This way.”

Twilight expanded the deadly lightning-producing cloud in the air and used it to surround the entire house as she got on her broomstick.

“Wait!” Rarity cried out. “Twilight, wh-what’s happened to you and the others? You’re not acting like yourselves at all! Why are you doing all this?”

“There’s no real reason, it’s just a thing we like to do,” Twilight said as she gave Rarity yet another discomforting smirk. “What is a pony, Rarity? A miserable little pile of flesh and secrets with a conscience! We are all just meat, meat that even in death, loves to kill itself with the weapons I’ve given it. All your lives are belongings of Celestia. And whatever you do can’t change the fact that you are on the way to destruction, so you better get ready to die!”

The speechless Rarity fell to her knees again.

“MAH MAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH!” the crazy Twilight taunted like a mutated crow in a dark castle as she flew away on her broom through the opening in the sky above Rarity. “Don’t ever try to run from your fate, Rarity! You have no chance to survive, so make the most of what’s left of your time! And if you can’t face your fears, then you may as well just let your world explode!”

“What to do, what to do?” Rarity thought to herself. “Let Fluttershy kill me and become an immortal being living in Twilight’s messed up world of nonsense, or kill Fluttershy and just end it all? I...I need to know...I need to get that deranged incarnation of diffidence to tell me more about the pop culture of this new world. She’s pure evil, if she won’t talk, then I should be able to use this to make her talk...”

Rarity levitated the gun with her horn, opened the door behind her, and walked back into Fluttershy’s house. She immediately began to feel an unnerving tickle down her fashionable spine as she heard some unsettling moaning.

“That gunshot must’ve woken her up,” Rarity said as she carefully descended into the basement, “but as long as she’s tied up, she shouldn’t have been able to...”

Rarity paused and quivered in fear when she saw that Fluttershy wasn’t there, and the ropes that she had used to constrict her were now severed and lying on the floor.

“What?! How did she escape?!” Rarity screamed. “My knot tying was simply immaculate!”

“WHERE ARE YOU?!” Rarity shouted as she ran back up the stairs in terror and distress.

“Duh huh huh,” said a familiar voice, “so you’re back Rarity...I’m right here in the bedroom...”

Rarity raced to Fluttershy’s second floor bedroom as her heart raced. She barged into the room and gasped at the atrocious atrocities being committed in that room. For... Fluttershy was in there having sex with Discord! ...Or at least caressing his stone body with her thighs while wearing her gray sweatpants on her bed.

“Fluttershy, NNNNNOOOOO!!!” Rarity cried as she wept. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”

“Oh hello, Rarity,” Fluttershy said as she put her solid snake on Discord’s lower plane, “Excuse me, but can you please leave me alone for a few minutes. This ritual is preferably done in private.”

“You ludicrous snoop!” Rarity berated. “Get your zig off that stoner’s base this instant!”

“But I can’t,” said Fluttershy, apparently still experiencing head trauma from Rarity’s blow, “it’s a sacred ritual. And besides, there’s only two rituals left after this!”

“Fluttershy, you know what you’re doing is wrong!” Rarity bellowed as Fluttershy continued to ace Discord’s great justice. “Take your zig off of his base now!”

“But Celestia gave this statue to me as a gift package because she had too much junk in her limousine trunk, his base technically belongs to me,” Fluttershy informed. “The last time it was ever rumored to have been used was by a celestial being seventeen years ago at the dawn of a twilight’s evening.”

“You...don’t even remember who that stoner is?!” Rarity said in bewilderment. “He was the hippy who tried to conquer Equestria with his new-age ideals and dance moves! He’s no better than Tom!”

“Really?” Fluttershy replied in a daze. “He’s pretty quiet around me.”

“The symmetry...has died...” Rarity said as she fainted from the inability to handle this most bizarre and illogical scenario and collapsed on the floor once again.

“What’s wrong this time, Rarity?” Fluttershy asked as she had finished using her pen to fill out Discord’s tax forms.

Fluttershy grabbed Rarity’s hind legs and dragged her downstairs to the living room, unaware that there was too much wrong with Rarity’s world now.

Chapter End Notes:

A Few Enigmatic Words from the Dragon of the Cloudy Mist Concerning This Chapter

For all of you who have been reading all of the chapters up to this point, let me tell you congratulations for lasting this far in this story of a dark sky. You are only midway through this tale, yet you have already experienced an unbelievable amount of weirdness and antilogic. No one would fault you if you are feeling confused at the moment, so to avert your feelings of obfuscation, I will give you a clue about how the characters in this story have lost sight of themselves. If you want to learn, you must think cupcakes. Right now, the dark sky is trying to muddle the situation with cupcakes, and you are a doomed soul unless you’ve learned this...

CUPCAKES WILL NEVER HURT YOU.

The cupcakes are a trap, and an illusion devised by the Dark Sky! Do not fear what will happen to you, for even death and the most grotesque and gruesome of torture will not compare to what the Dark Sky has prepared for the weak of spirit. Now go ahead dauntlessly, and may your progress be rapid! And remember...

DO NOT FEAR WHAT IS DISTORTED, FEAR WHAT WILL DISTORT YOU.


	5. The Truth of Fluttershy

Part 4: The Truth of Fluttershy: The Message of the Lyrics

An hour later, Rarity woke up for hopefully the final time. This time, she was not in Fluttershy’s basement though. She was lying in the middle of the floor of Fluttershy’s living room, and even more shocking, she saw that there was nothing keeping her bound to the floor.

“She...didn’t even tie me up,” Rarity said in shock of her mobility. “Is this out of clemency or just confidence that I won’t try to escape?”

“Neither,” said Fluttershy who stepped out from the kitchen, “seeing as we’re this far into the ritual, there’s no real point. Besides, no mortal can resist the intensity of the thriller...known as my rap!”

Rarity looked up at Fluttershy and jolted at the sight of her. Fluttershy was dressed in a black sock hat, black pants that said “Ace” on the left leg and “Shadow” on the right leg, and a frumpy black sweatshirt that said “Dark Rainbow” on the back and “Shy Fantasy” on the front.

“Hold on a second,” said Rarity recalling seeing the terms on Fluttershy’s pants earlier, “Ace, Shadow, rap?! You’re that hip secret agent on the newspaper! You’re a killer, a rapper, and now a thief? How low can you sink?”

“Thief, what do you mean?” Fluttershy replied. “I am a former secret agent, but I never stole anything from Celestia’s boxy safety deposit box. Security in her castle is way too good.”

“Then why does it say something was stolen on the front page?” Rarity asked.

“It was just a lie,” Fluttershy explained. “Celestia really did give me the statue, she just requested that a palpable detective story be written about it in the news, because all very super famous ponies lie.”

“I don’t understand you ponies anymore,” Rarity said like a confused MC. “Anyways, how did you get out of my inescapable trap? What did you with the gun?”

“Actually, I don’t remember how I got out of that,” said Fluttershy as if she had amnesia. “All I remember was waking up and finding the ropes cut. As for that gun, it looked like a dangerous toy, so I put it in a place where it wouldn’t harm anypony. I also put away my knife and whip just in case, thanks for looking after them while I was out.”

“You meddling kid!” Rarity complained like a rapper who had just lost four of his lethal weapons. “That was MY toy that I got from MY former friend!”

“Don’t worry Rarity, I’ll give it back to you,” Fluttershy assured the insecure unicorn in a secure tone, “but in the meantime, let’s have some fun as I rap you!”

“Bring it on, you ropist!” the dignified Rarity boasted, unhappy that Fluttershy had roped her into this mess. “Aspire me with your inspirational music!”

“Let’s get started!” Fluttershy declared in an expository manner as she busted out her rap.

“All the rappers are brash and boisterous, not I

For the rapper on the mic is MC Nervous Fluttershy!

I took a walk with my blue jay, and called him Gerard Way, you don’t say

The little guy, he got a little excited that day

And he tried to fly away, but I just stay

Cause the sky’s a dangerous place for someone like me to play

So I call out yay, but he just turned away

So I just fled from there without him to my dismay!”

And all the other MCs are pretty bold and brave

But when I get on the mic, I throw that all in the fray

And I play, with my pet bunny in my secret hiding place

Then I shout “RUN AWAY!” and put my hooves on my face!”

“So uh, did you enjoy it, Rarity?” Fluttershy asked.

“Th-that’s the music of the new age?!” Rarity shouted, her face contorted in shock. “That wasn’t music! It was chaos with a karaoke machine!”

“Chaotic music is what’s considered cool these days,” Fluttershy said, describing the many wonders of her music.

“But the lyrics make no sense!” Rarity said, confounded by Fluttershy’s inappropriate rhyming. “Who would name their pet Gerard Way? Who would walk a bird to a park? Why would you write a song describing your cowardice and insecurities?!”

“I know I exaggerated the details,” Fluttershy said, aware of the historical inaccuracy of her song, “but I thought it was necessary to tell the public who I truly am in my music.”

“Wait...the public?” Rarity asked. “Oh please don’t tell me...”

“Yeah, I’m a professional MC,” the rapping pegasus who had earned great recognition from the public replied in earnest. “I compose music with Celestia’s personal band, the Dark Sky! Their name isn’t just for titular purposes, they’re an elite group of pegasi chosen by Celestia herself, the ponies who truly represent the importance of darkness and friendship!”

“So then the last ritual must be...” Rarity said, catching Fluttershy’s stygian drift.

“You guessed it,” Fluttershy said with a subtle wink, “a live concert starring the most dazzlingly dark band in all of Equestria in my own living room!”

“They’re going to come...here?” Rarity replied. “I thought Twilight barricaded the house with storm clouds.”

“They’re not going to come here, they’re already here,” said Fluttershy as knowledgeable as someone who knew too much about bees. “The Dark Sky are always present Rarity, why would Celestia hire workers who weren’t around to keep her company whenever needed?”

“Wait, if they’re as omnipresent as privacy,” Rarity argued, “then how come I can’t see them?”

“You have to use your imagination,” Fluttershy said as vivid as a tanked up turtle who had drunk too much rainbow juice. “Just close your eyes, look deep down in your mind and you’ll see fantasy become real. This is how you become one with the Dark Sky...”

“...Let’s just get this over with so I can make my decision.” Rarity replied as she acquiesced like a queen. She proceeded to shut her eyes, and started thinking about the fantastic fantasy that she had been living for the past three days, and how she may have lived her final moments in reality. She had started wanting to die just to end the suspense of this silly life and death situation. Just then, she saw a white mist rolling into the darker depths of her mind. When she opened her eyes, she saw a white mist enveloping the room.

“I guess you truly do want to die now, Rarity,” Fluttershy said as the white mist covered her too, making her as invisible as someone hiding under a cloak. “The Dark Sky loves ponies who seek death.”

Rarity was more nervous than ever. As the mist dissipated, she saw Fluttershy standing in front of the shapes of four pegasi covered by an orange and gray sheet that had basketballs and footballs all over it. There was also a white cloud hovering in the air.

“Rarity,” Fluttershy said dramatically as she turned around to pull off the sheet, “I present to you...”

“DDDDEEEERRRRPPPPYYYYY JJJJEEEENNNNKKKIIIIINNNNNSSSSSSS!!!” shouted the bubbly Derpy as she threw off the sheet like a spongy old man.

“Ah!” Fluttershy said as she jumped back in surprise.

The four pegasi who were under the sheet were the three pegasi who complimented Rarity’s wings and Derpy Hooves, having been ceremoniously revealed Derpy style.

The trio of pegasi were wearing black pants and pink heart shaped necklaces that had the word “Bro” embedded on the front side, and the word “Sis” embedded on the back. The black pegasus was wearing a blue shirt that said the word “Coherence” on the front, and the word “Chemistry” on the back. The orange pegasus was wearing a yellow shirt that said the word “Essence” on the front and the word “Eternity” on the back. The gray pegasus was wearing a white shirt that said “Verdant” on the front and “Chronology” on the back. Last of all, Derpy was wearing a gray shirt that said the words “Outstanding Man” on the front, and the words “Sympathetic Symphony” on the back. Just as Rarity finished analyzing the aspects of their clothes, a rainbow appeared out of the cloud like a lightning bolt, and Rarity gasped as imagination came to life.

“Derpy, you ruined our dramatic entrance!” shouted Rainbow Dash as she appeared under the rainbow Rainbow Dash style. “How are people supposed to guess that Rainbow Dash is the one making the surprise appearance on stage when you’re shouting your name!”

“Yeah, nice work Herpy Dupes,” said the black pegasus, “it’s thanks to you that we got fired from the weather factory.”

“I’m sorry,” Derpy apologized, “I just wanted to make our appearance more foreboding.”

“Hey,” Rarity said upon recognizing these familiar faces, “you’re the lady on Fluttershy’s restroom symbol! And Rainbow Dash, you were the man on the the boys’ bathroom symbol!”

All of the pegasi stared at her in confusion.

“What the boom are you raining about?” the sonic Dash said with a lack of guile. “I’m not a man, I’m just your everyday normal guy!”

“Hey, wait a minute,” the black pegasus said upon remembering Rarity, “you were that spoony horned butterfly from the Wonderbolts competition! Ha ha, yes!”

“What are you so excited about?” Rarity questioned.

“We can finally complete our collection!” the orange pegasus cheered as a cloud of mist appeared in his arms, and a rectangular blue case materialized out of thin air. He opened it up, and revealed that five plushies were inside, each resembling the ponies Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy respectively.

“They made toys out of us?” Rarity said feeling slightly flattered. “Why are you interested in dolls?”

“You couldn’t tell by our attire?” the black pegasus replied as he flashed his manly heart-shaped necklace. “We’ve turned brony!”

“Yeah,” the orange pegasus chimed in like a musician, “after we turned emo to represent the sorrow of the Dark Sky, we decided to take a step beyond and become bronies as well!”

“That’s right!” Rainbow Dash declared liked a radio host as she hovered in the air. “Thanks to these guys, the tetrahedral factor for our band is complete! Money, success, fame, and brony!”

“Our worship of the Goddess of Death, Prince Luna, Princess Celestia and other ponies has gotten us a huge boost in our reputation!” the black pegasus said as proud as a rapper who had just urinated in public. “It sure pays to be a poser!”

Just as Rarity was about to berate this pegasus for his polygamy, something else caught her eyes which paid annoying attention to detail. Aside from Fluttershy having completely zoned out into her own world from the shock of Derpy throwing off the sheet, Rainbow Dash was fluttering in the air without moving her wings!

“How are you doing that, Rainbow Dash?” Rarity said upon viewing the uncanny sight of Rainbow Dash in the air. “I didn’t know you could fly without using your wings...”

“Oh, these wings?” Rainbow Dash replied as she examined her back. “Oh, I don’t need them anymore. Thanks to me becoming a ghost, I was able to become the greatest flier in Equestria who became the greatest flier in Equestria without using her wings a single time! Cool, huh?”

“A...ghost?” Rarity said in a startled tone. “You mean...you’re dead?! I thought Fluttershy brought you all back to life!”

“She did,” Ghost Rainbow Dash said in a ghastly tone of voice, “but shortly after that, Pinkie Pie wanted me to make cupcakes with her at the bakery. I turned her down because I hate that game, and I wanted to practice my flying moves. So I went to Ghastly Gorge to practice when I got ripped to shreds and eaten by a Quarray Eel! Thank goodness he killed me, I could’ve been stuck in that gorge forever!”

“Stuck in that cold and unwelcoming canyon forever,” the empathetic Rarity said, “what an awful thought.”

“Not as awful as getting fired though,” the black pegasus said, having had a similar torturous experience. “We used to work at the weather factory, until just yesterday when we learned that the rainbows were actually being made from sugar instead of pony flesh. It turns out the executives of the Rainbow Department thought it would be cheaper to use sugar in their latest formula for making rainbows because pony flesh is in such high demand right now due to the recent discovery of its versatility. You can make it into clothing, food, toys, the works.”

“That’s terrible, how could they lie to you about such a crucial thing?” Rarity said, appalled at how their employers tried to sugarcoat the truth with spice. “But how did you find out?”

“Derpy here just so happened to drop a crate of supplies being shipped to the Rainbow Factory tower, and wisened up to the truth when she noticed that it was full of sugar,” the orange pegasus explained. “Her supervisor warned her that it had to remain a secret to everyone, and she told us the first chance she got. Then she went back to her supervisor and asked if she was doing a good job by telling us and making sure that everyone knew it was a secret. In response, they took us to a dark room, tore off our skin, killed us and had us brought back to life. But worst of all, those jerks fired us when they are all done, and told us that it was all a warning of what would happen if we told anyone else about their secrets.”

“At least they had the courtesy to give you a warning,” Rarity remarked on the mercy of their employers. “Learning that kind of knowledge is detrimental to the mind.”

“We wouldn’t have learned anything if it wasn’t for Derpy!” the orange pegasus objected to Derpy’s methods of education. “Being unemployed and having little skill, we became the prominent choice for the members to be hired to play in the princess’s personal band.”

“Sorry, I just didn’t know what had gone wrong.” Derpy said regretfully without using the present tense.

“Of course,” Rainbow Dash replied like an impatient bison, “now is that enough exposition? We’re going to have to rush this thing and get back to the castle ASAP if we’re going to get paid!”

“Paid?” Rarity said. “Celestia pays you? I thought money was useless in the immortal world.”

“Do you have ears?!” Rainbow Dash asserted in a deafening voice that reoriented Fluttershy. “The Dark Sky’s four goals are making money, being successful, and being famous all while being bronies! Who cares if the money is worthless, we have rules to follow around here!”

“Ah, I wasn’t sleeping, I was just relaxing and-Alright,” Fluttershy interrupted herself as she recovered from her dizziness, “let’s start the concert so we can all celebrate Rarity’s soon to be newfound immortality!”

“We’re not in it for the money though,” the black pegasus said referring to his two homeboys and the altruistic soul Derpy, “we’re just in this to accrue the revenue known as the tea parties we’ve had with the doll forms of our most honorable pony heroines. Celestia gave us the plushies Fluttershy made from the skin and fur of her other friends to have fun tea parties with as payment, and you’ll be no exception.”

“Ooh, so you’re going to play with me a bit?” the flattered Rarity said in a suggestive manner.

“I hope you like oolong...” the black pegasus replied in a charmed voice, “because that’s the type of tea we’ll be drinking there.”

“Oh,” Rarity said as disappointed as a guy who just cockblocked himself, “it’s one of those tea parties. Not exactly fitting for a civilized gentlemare like myself.”

“Oh they’ll suit you alright,” the black pegasus assured with confidence, “so keep your muppet shut until then, you insubordinate puppet.”

“There’s really no need to say anything else Rarity,” said the peace-loving Fluttershy, “you’re going to die and become immortal soon! Isn’t that going to be wonderful?”

“Uh...yeah, of course it will be!” Rarity agreed, despite having no intention of complying with Fluttershy’s plan to have her killed. She just wanted to listen to the Dark Sky’s music for the sake of ending the suspense.

“Then let’s begin!” Fluttershy shouted as a white mist rolled in and occupied itself in each of the Dark Sky member’s arms, excluding her. Once the mist had dissipated, in each pegasus’ hooves, a musical instrument appeared. In the black pegasus’ hooves appeared a harmonica, in the orange pegasus’ hooves a harp, in the gray pegaus’ hooves a violin, and in Rainbow Dash’s hooves, an air guitar accompanied by a tuba whose front end was meant to be used as a guitar pick. Derpy was the only pegasus aside from Fluttershy who received not an instrument, but a microphone. Since the clutzy Derpy was not deemed trustworthy enough to handle an instrument properly, she had been made the lead singer, a much more appropriate role.

“We’re going to play you a harmonious melody of death as a way to welcome you to your new life!” Fluttershy said happily as the pegasi got in their appropriate positions and started playing a song. “Enjoy!”

Rarity prepared herself for the worst once more as the Dark Sky started to play their theme song.

Now a grimdark tale isn’t quite as scary

As the story we knew of death and despairing

Because death is as tragic as a flower losing its petals

As long as that flower has considerable mettle

Let’s talk more about that limpid sky

It’s chills and thrills make killers go awry

For its victims are known to plead many cries

Not for rescue, not for help, but for death and demise

In Fluttershy’s Dark Sky, where not a single soul gets by

In Fluttershy’s Dark Sky, where everyone gets ready to die

A dark place where you meet your most powerful foes

Where victims beg for cupcakes and rainbows

They say these things as they hold out their hands

Just go there yourself, and I think you’ll understand

No death, no pain, no power of flames,

No one could imagine, no matter how insane

So prepare yourself, for this unthinkable bane

Prepare yourself, for the sky’s dark rain

In Fluttershy’s Dark Sky, where not a single soul gets by

In Fluttershy’s Dark Sky, where everyone gets ready to die

In Fluttershy’s Dark Sky, do you have what it takes to try?

In Fluttershy’s Dark Sky, will you laugh or will you sigh?

In Fluttershy’s Dark Sky, soar your spirit and prepare to fly...

Rarity’s face was once again contorted in shock and fear, like someone who had just learned they had used a time machine irresponsibly, and would pay for their mistake. The Dark Sky band’s strange choice of music and Derpy’s accurate slurring of the lyrics had conveyed an atmospheric stratosphere of horror. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

“How...d-did...you learn...to make music like that?!” the aghast Rarity exclaimed as she wet herself like a rapper who had constipation.

“It’s magic!” the black pegasus explained in a cogent and laconic manner. “Twilight simply used her unstoppable magic to give us amazing musical abilities! Pretty scary, don’t you think?”

“You must be really excited right now, Rarity!” proclaimed Fluttershy as she noticed Rarity’s urination. “Well you don’t have to contain yourself, because we’ve got even more songs!”

Rarity squirmed around on the floor and tried to cover her ears, but it was futile. For the next thirty minutes, the Dark Sky continued to perform heart-lifting songs about being dead, the last words of Equestria’s most famous dead celebrities, and joining marching bands. Derpy’s incredible voice which sounded just like a cross between Freddie Mercury’s, Gerard Way’s, and Justin Bieber’s, greatly emphasized the messages of the songs, as well as Fluttershy’s abrupt and unprecedented rapping between each song’s chorus. With that, Rarity now knew the music of the modern age, and also knew its traumatizing effects of horror. The mortified Rarity knew that she would not make it as a member of Twilight’s society. It was time to pull the pin on this grenade and end this bullshit once and for all.

“So what do you think, Rarity?” the ever oblivious Fluttershy asked.

In response, Rarity started to laugh maniacally as she got up on her feet.

“I think it’s all WONDERFUL!” the divine unicorn yelled, having lost her mind.

“That’s fantastic!” Fluttershy replied cheerily like a florist teacher. “Now that all the rituals are over, I’m going to assume you’re ready to die like the dignified pony you are!”

“Oh, I’m ready alright,” said the well-prepared Rarity. “Bring me the gun and all your weapons of unfathomably painful torture! Gag, bore me, even feel free to cut my gorgeous hair!”

“Wow!” the enthused Fluttershy exclaimed enthusiastically. “You must truly have conquered your fear of death, and have nothing left to lose! I guess I can trust you with that gun!”

A cloud of mist gathered in Fluttershy’s hooves and the knife and gun appeared. The other pegasi stood and watched in anticipation as the end of Fluttershy’s illicit plot unfolded. Derpy was most observant of this momentous occasion, as her Derp Vision allowed her to see the action from two different angles.

“Take good care of it,” the trusting Fluttershy said as she handed Rarity the gun. “Alright, now we can finally end this tea party, and make you an immortal!”

“Hey Fluttershy, how would you like to be immortalized as my friend?” Rarity asked in a triumphant voice as she levitated the gun with her unicorn horn.

“That would be nice,” the unsuspecting Fluttershy replied as Rarity pointed the gun at her forehead.

“You think?” Rarity said with a sinister smile. “Then welcome to my little tea party!”

Rarity punched Fluttershy in the face, and grabbed her by the neck. She then proceeded to point the gun at her head with her telekinesis while she squeezed her neck with her arms.

“Nice work, Clutter Mind!” Rarity shouted as she laughed derisively. “Now you can be just like those refugees Discord, and the representatives of friendship!”

“Hey, you can’t insult Fluttershy’s name!” the black pegasus noted Rarity’s disobedience of great justice. “It’s one thing to hit her, but making fun of her name is just downright unethical!”

“Yeah,” Ghost Rainbow Dash said as she ascended to the ceiling, “and you can’t honestly believe you have the power to “immortalize” Fluttershy with a toy. Show some modesty!”

“Whatever they said!” Derpy justified. “Let’s be smarter here!

“Shut your stupid mouths, you wise saints!” Rarity bellowed. “Unless you want to be turned to stone along with your foolish heathen of a comrade!”

“Turned to stone?” Fluttershy asked in confusion.

“That’s right!” Rarity boasted as the situation had appeared to have turned in her favor. “I’m going to use this pistol that Twilight gave me to petrify you! It immediately stones all those who have evil hearts, which you certainly are, considering all this hell you put me through!”

The room was filled with bursts of laughter.

“Nice joke, Rarity!” the orange pegasus complimented her. “Fluttershy is anything but evil!”

“Good prank there, Rarity!” Ghost Rainbow Dash commented. “You’re a little too old to be playing with toys, but you almost had me believe that you were going to harm Fluttershy with something that silly-looking!”

“No, I’m serious!” Rarity cried. “I’m going to petrify her and then myself! Just watch!”

Rarity pulled the trigger, and it fired a rainbow at the side of Fluttershy’s head. To her surprise though, the rainbow was completely dispelled upon making contact with Fluttershy.

“Alright Rarity, this joke is starting to lose its touch.” Rainbow Dash said, failing to see the irony of this situation.

“Yeah, let’s kill you and end this whole thing so we can leave and have our tea party!” the black pegasus said, growing impatient.

“You can’t be serious...” Rarity said in a serious voice. “It doesn’t affect you either?!”

“What were you trying to do, Rarity?” Fluttershy asked, unable to comprehend the situation. “I’m not evil of heart.”

“How can you not be evil?!” Rarity shouted. “You committed atrocities against me, my friends, symmetry, and worst of all, FASHION! You made a joke out of life itself!”

“But Rarity,” Fluttershy replied, “if that’s the case, then why are you so angry?”

“Huh?!” Rarity said in dejection.

“If you think life is just a joke now,” Fluttershy said with a smile, “then why aren’t you laughing? Death should mean nothing to you anymore, so why don’t we just forget about it and move on?”

Rarity stared at Fluttershy for a few seconds, and suddenly started bursting out laughing again.

“Ahahahahaha....AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!” she laughed in a crazy way as she threw the gun to the side and ran to the door.

“Hey, where are you going?!” Fluttershy called out. “You can’t go outside, we’re still not done here! You have to be killed and resurrected!”

Rarity didn’t answer, but instead opened the door and called out to the clouds.

“Hello, dark sky!” she shouted. “It’s your hero, Rarity!”

Upon saying that, she ran under the cloud, which struck her with a lightning bolt. All the pegasi looked outside out of curiosity, and were shocked by the sight they were viewing.

“NNNNNNNYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Rarity cried as her body incinerated from the intense heat emanating from the lightning.

With an instantaneous death, the clouds floating around the house disappeared, and Rarity, the magnanimous hero who prevailed through Fluttershy’s and the dark sky’s torture, was gone.

Fluttershy made her way over to Rarity’s ashes, and knelt down.

“One feather...all she had to do was touch one remnant of a phoenix.” Fluttershy said as she picked up the ashes and started to cry.

“What just happened?” the black pegasus said upon having lost his chance to complete his collection of dolls.

“Is she dead?” Derpy asked.

“Of course not, Derpy,” Dash said sarcastically, having a better concept of death. “She’s just going to be a pile of ashes forever! What do you think?!”

“Poor Rarity,” Derpy said sympathetically, “I wouldn’t want to look like that for the rest of my life.”

Just then, the sound of footsteps and a loud crashing noise could be heard from the house. The group of pegasi and noticed a broken video camera lying on the floor. All of a sudden, someone appeared in the living room. It was the one who had been called Rainbow Dash! He had rainbow-colored hair, peach fuzz, and had just taken a tiara off his head, which up until now had made him and any objects his hands were touching invisible. He had used it to spy on Fluttershy and Rarity to take footage of their illicit tea party, and had also been masticating cupcakes to the whole thing. The invisible cameraman was...Spike!

“NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!” Spike yelled as he raised his hands in the air upon breaking out of the natural stun of seeing his love interest Rarity dead.

“Spike, what are you doing in Fluttershy’s house?!” asked the visiting black pegasus.

“I DO NOT KNOW WHAT I AM DOING ANYMORE!” the horrified Spike shouted as he ran outside to where Rarity’s ashes laid.

“Spike, w-what are you doing here?!” Fluttershy asked upon seeing the facial-haired baby dragon.

“C-Celestia ordered me to come here under the guise of an invisible pegasus using a magic tiara Twilight gave me that makes its bearer invisible,” the disturbed Spike said as he explained his shocking secrets. “I used it to hide in the background and take a cideo, a Celestial cinematic video tape, of Fluttershy’s fantastical bonding session with Rarity. I agreed to the assignment because I thought it would just be as simple as your average tea party, but things got really messed up! Rarity kept passing out, and I had to stay inside your basement for days eating cupcakes to avoid going hungry! I even had to use my tired claws to free Fluttershy after Rarity tied her up and shoved all that food down her throat! I had no idea that your tea parties were this elaborate and dramatic!”

“Wow, that dragon looks like another pony I know, don’t you think Rainbow Dash?” Derpy said as she noticed Spike’s resemblance to the cyan-colored pegasus standing next to her.

“Spike, you fraudulent imposter!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “You were trying to impersonate me so you could spy on me and the others while looking cool, you awesome peeping tomboy!”

“No I wasn’t, I was gathering important information for the princess to educate herself with!” Spike said attempting to refute her statement. “I’m a legitimate cideo maker, I even have a fake ID authorized by Celestia herself!”

Spike breathed a breath of magic green fire, and his identification card appeared.

“Let me see that!” Rainbow Dash demanded as she flew in to see the ID. “Oh wow, you weren’t lying, this is an authentic fake ID! It even has the “Celestia was here” seal of approval on it!”

“But why would the respectable Celestia want footage like that?” the orange pegasus finally asked, wanting to say something after spending most of his time doing sod all.

“It isn’t just an important educational adult movie for her,” Spike replied as he used his magic breath to teleport the still-intact tape from the broken video camera to his hands, “it’s important for the kids and the new generation of Equestria as well! The demonstration of how to perform these rituals is a sacred practice that was thought up by Princess Celestia herself on a sleepless and unforgettable night! This cideo will become a historical record to educate our children on the justice of this generation’s culture!”

“I know I’m her most faithful lackey right now aside from Twilight,” the puzzled Fluttershy said, “but was my mission really that important to her? To me, this whole surprise immortality ritual was just an attempt to have a fun tea party with my friend gone terribly wrong...”

“It’s gone a lot worse than terribly wrong,” the mentally scarred Spike noted. “Twilight was in on this as well, which is why she enhanced my teleportation powers so I could get inside your house with the greatest of ease and film the last disciple’s discovery of immortality. But now that Rarity’s dead for real, Twilight’s plans for the new world for the new world have been greatly jeopardized. As the child of the celestial heavens and the god of discord, she is the destined ruler of this universe, the one who would save Equestria from anguish and chaos by abolishing death. Unfortunately, she has cheated nature and the god of death herself, and now that a killed pony has passed on to the moon, she will know of what’s been going on here.”

“Wait, how has she not noticed yet?” the clueless Derpy asked. “You’d think that her sister’s disciple gaining extraordinary power and sovereign dominion over the world, and decimating and immortalizing all of Equestria’s inhabitants would be a very explanatory clue.”

“Twilight knows that the god of death is not as naive as her,” Spike explained to her in his intellect. “She knew that the god of death would suspect conspiracy in Celestia’s corrupt government if she was supporting the ponies of Equestria to decapitate and decimate each other and no one’s name was appearing on the death warrant that she carries around. So to avert feelings of suspicion, Twilight used her jurisdiction to send her on a 1,000 year vacation to the moon before she put her illicit plan of good in motion. To no surprise, the god of death agreed to go on the vacation (she didn’t find it strange when Celestia gave her a vacation like that after all). But now that Rarity’s passed on, she will show up on the moon for the god of death’s judgment, and she has no motivation to keep what happened to her down here a secret to her. When she finds out what happened, then we’ll all be at the mercy of...”

Before Spike could finish his sentence, whoever he was about to mention flew towards them on a black cloud to save him the trouble of explaining the mysterious pony’s identity in words. The one riding the cloud was The Grim Reaper, who was wearing a black robe and stomping on the cloud with her hooves to make thunder strike. When she got close enough to the ground, she jumped down from the cloud.

“What the sun hast thou done, thy motherfuckers?!” the robed pony shouted in a bout of fury as she finalized her dramatic entrance by making thunder strike all around her. It was...Luna!

A Few Enigmatic Words from the Cloud Dragon of the Mist Concerning This Chapter

For those of you have heeded the words advising you to make your progress through the dark sky, congratulations. You have proven that your justice is great, and enriched with knowledge of culture. Do not let yourself rest yet though, hero, for the most powerful advocate of the dark sky has yet to make an appearance. The true mascot of the dark sky has not been defeated, and right now, they’re stronger than ever before!

The true villain will make an appearance at the upcoming conflict, so prepare your mind and spirit! And remember...

DO NOT FLEE FROM THE GRIMNESS OF THE SKY, FOR DARKNESS WILL ALWAYS FIND YOU. NO MATTER WHAT FORM IT CHOOSES, A RAINBOW OR A CLOUD ENSHROUDING YOUR SPIRIT, FACE IT WITHOUT FEAR.


	6. The Love of Fluttershy: The Distorted Dream

Part 5: The Love of Fluttershy: The Distorted Dream (Part 1 of 2)

The members of the Dark Sky and Spike stared at Luna in fear and shock. They did not know much about the enigmatic goddess of death, Prince Luna, but they were confident in their knowledge of the fact that she had never sworn before, even when she had the worst of headaches and migraines.

“By the name of the brightest of stars,” said the angry entity, “what hast thou DONE?!

Spike used his breath to teleport the cideo tape to a safe place and stepped forward.

“I-I p-p-promise you P-Princess Luna, god of the accordance of death,” the frightened Spike tried to muster respectfully as he used his magic breath to teleport a cupcake from Fluttershy’s refrigerator to his hands. “The light lord Twilight has no malice in her intentions to establish her place as ruler of the world and embellish the world’s culture with violence and destruction. If you’re feeling weary or troubled right now, you can have this cupcake as compensation...”

“Tis a lie!” Luna bellowed as she smacked the cupcake out of Spike’s hands. “Your “reverent overlord” Twilight hast become nothing more than a murderer and a flim-flam artist! And those “cupcakes” art nothing more than a lie to conceal the most undeniable of truths!”

“Aaah!” Spike cried as he fell to the floor cowering. “Just kill me! I’ve lost my precious gem Rarity, and Twilight’s lost her mind! All she wants me around for now is to sweep the floors!”

“No!” Luna shouted in refusal. “I am the god of death, it is against my nature to take the lives of my mortal subjects. In any case, it doesn’t matter, because thanks to Twilight, there’s no lives left to take!”

“P-please listen Luna,” Fluttershy tried to reason, “I’m sorry that Twilight killed everypony and took over the world, but there’s a silver lining to this dark cloud in this dark sky. Every pony in Equestria is a resurrected immortal now, so you don’t have to do your job anymore!”

“Thou witless whelp!” Luna remarked as she used her magic to make a black book entitled “Death Warrant” appear. “If everypony is truly eternal now, then why is our Death Warrant telling us that every pony in Equestria is dead!”

Everyone stared at the book in disbelief as Luna flipped through the pages, showing that every page in the book was filled with everypony’s name.

“How is this possible?!” Spike yelled. “No pony actually died! And if they did, they should’ve immediately gone to the moon or the sun!”

“All the ponies who died genuinely died, Spike,” Luna said as she gave her morbid revelation. “The phoenix feather Fluttershy procured only allows its owner to return to earth in either the form of a ghoul or a zombie, it does not actually bring a pony back to life. Thou are all just a bunch of ghosts and goblins.”

“NNNNNOOOOOOOOO!” Spike cried out like a dragon who had just lost a diamond of extreme rarity. “Twilight lied to me! The supernatural were real! She’s no god! She’s just a phony!”

“But that means I really did kill all those ponies...” Fluttershy said as she began tearing up. “Why would Celestia lie to me like that?”

“Hey, I did not come back as a ghost just to play in a band with a bunch of goblins!” Rainbow Dash protested. “I want my money, success, fame, and bronies back!”

“We didn’t lose our jobs and became a group of performing emo bronies just so we could be ghouls!” the black pegasus shouted.

“Yeah,” the orange pegasus chimed in, “we became this way so we could get closer to our favorite ponies!”

“I don’t want to be a zombie!” Derpy said being the chorus singer in the band. “I don’t have any use for brains! What is Celestia thinking?”

“Wise statement there, Derpy,” Luna replied as she pointed out the wisdom in the ditzy pony’s words. “Celestia is NOT thinking. No one in this Twilight-forsaken town is for that matter. Thine ponies all hast been deceived...by cupcakes.”

“Huh? How could somebody have set us up using cupcakes?” the bombastic Rainbow Dash said in a memetic manner. “The cupcakes are not a lie or anything.”

“Then take a look at this,” Luna said as Rainbow Dash looked closer at the inside of the book as if she was gazing into a portal. “Under each name, there’s also a brief description on how the pony whose name twas listed died. See for thyself.”

Rainbow Dash was surprised to see that under each name of the recently deceased ponies (including Rarity and the Dark Sky members aside from Fluttershy who had died three months prior), there was a mention in the description about that pony dying while being drugged...on cupcakes.

“We were all under the influence...of cupcakes?!” the perplexed Rainbow Dash shouted. “How can that be?”

“Pray tell, thine flustered fluttering friends,” Luna continued, “hast thee found it more than a coincidence that every pony in this town can not bear to part with thine baked goods?”

All the pegasi and Spike stopped to think about what earlier seemed like a simple bit of background information.

“Come to think of it,” Fluttershy said as she reminisced on her first meeting with Princess Celestia. “when Celestia gave me that explanation on immortality, we were both eating...”

“Before and after the others and I were killed by Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said as she recalled the first time she had died, “we were all given...”

“When Celestia invited us to her castle to become members of her personal band,” said the trio of pegasi, “for refreshments, she offered us some...”

“When I made the decision to close down my bankrupt pizza parlor a few hours ago because all good restaurants go out of business after running out of money,” Derpy said as she thought over what she hadn’t told anyone else, “I was eating...”

“During my entire diet of cupcakes in Fluttershy’s basement, I was eating...” Spike said blatantly as obvious as a starship pilot.

“That’s right,” said the correct Luna, “the cupcakes are in fact, a lie.”

“But how could something as innocent as a baked good be packed with so much mind-distorting material?” the confused Fluttershy asked.

“We just met thy friend Rarity on the moon.” Luna said as she described the past in an archaic manner. “If what she hath told me was true, for the past three months, your beloved friend Pinkie Pie hast been taking charge of making cupcakes at the bakery since her landlords, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, needed to spend more time taking care of thine children. Think carefully...”

“She...got every pony in Equestria high on death?” said the lowly Fluttershy.

“Oh Celestia no,” said Rainbow Dash upon putting it all together. “How could that sadist Pinkie Pie even conjure up something so malevolent?”

“Why couldn’t you have just checked that Death Warrant sooner so we could have at least had a chance to avert all this mayhem and destruction?” the upset Spike said as he pointed out Luna’s lack of preclusion. “Shouldn’t the deaths of Celestia’s and your subjects intrigue you enough to check their status in that book on an ordinary basis?”

“And shouldn’t us constantly checking when thou will die be a little insulting?” Luna replied to the would-be giant dragon. “As an all-powerful pony with godlike powers, we are very impartial and methodical. We only look in this book once a week to make a status report on all of the members of the Lunar Republic. Before Twilight lost thy mind, she taught us a few things about symmetry.”

“Aaagh, curse you symmetry!” Spike shouted. “You ruined my life! I’m garbage! I want to die!”

“Don’t beat yourself up, Spike,” Fluttershy said as she sympathized with the broken dragon, “no pony could be as unsymmetrical as Pinkie Pie.”

“Speaking of which,” said the black pegasus, “where is that little party animal?”

“A very thought provoking thing to think about,” responded the orange pegasus, “where is that product of a rainbow fantasy’s imagination?”

“...” the ever-stoic gray pegasus added to the argument silently.

“Good point!” the understanding Derpy complimented. “We need to find her and handle this the right way!”

“Yeah,” the debate-loving Rainbow Dash agreed as she cracked her brass-knuckle like hooves, “let’s go out and beat up this murderous bully! That’ll teach her to get every pony in Equestria killed and high!”

“Just don’t forget to do it Pinkie Pie style!” shouted Pinkie Pie as she stood in front of the representing Dark Sky with Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, and Princess Celestia lying at her knees.

“Hmm?” said Luna as she noticed this unusual sight.

“Wh-what’s going on here?” Fluttershy asked as the dumbfounded Dark Sky members paused, looking down at the mortified ponies at Pinkie’s feet.

“My family,” said the kindred Applejack, “thanks to me, they’ll all never bloom...”

“Pinkie...” the weary Twilight said as she looked up at the pink pony, stunned as if she had spent months lying in bed. “What do I know...”

“Everything,” said Pinkie as she gave Twilight a grateful smile for teleporting her and the others at Fluttershy’s house, “you’re the all-powerful ruler of Equestria, remember? You’re probably tired though from all that hard work, you need to learn to take a rest every now and then. Now lie down, relax, and look up to the sky. With such an eventful life you three had, this can’t be your final song...”

“Twilight,” the once vain ruler of the castle Celestia said as she looked over at her despondent student, “I’m sorry this had to be the night of your final symphony...”

“I was just a miserable pile of secrets,” the ruined Twilight said as she used her magic powers to nullify Pinkie’s, Applejack’s, Celestia’s, and her immortality, “I wasn’t wrong...but I never learned...”

With those words, Twilight, Celestia, and Applejack were gone. The last thing Twilight had done before she died was used her magic to transform their now lifeless bodies into stone.

“Now...you wake up from your nap!” Pinkie Pie declared as she knew that her former friends were going to the moon.

“Celestia...” said Luna in shock of her sister’s death.

“Pinkie, what did you do to them?!” the concerned Fluttershy asked as her three friends laid on the ground, looking as if they could be asleep or dead.

“They were just having some bad nightmares,” said the maternal Pinkie Pie with a voice as soft as sand, “so they decided that they wanted to wake up from the nap I had you all take!”

“Nap? Did you say...nap?” the restless Rainbow Dash asked.

“You mean...this has all been a dream?” said the dazed and confused black pegasus.

“It would make perfect sense, seeing how nothing has made sense in this senseless dream.” said the insensible orange pegasus.

“Did I forget to wake up this morning?” the forgetful Derpy asked.

“You have forgotten nothing,” the bubbly Pinkie Pie replied to the elephant-colored derpwit, “you’ve just been having a vision in a real-life nightmare, you lucky incipient folk!”

“No wonder this has been such an unpleasant experience,” said the trippy Spike.

“We’ve all been high and dreaming all at the same time?” said the bewildered Luna.

“Wow, this just gets better and better!” the unmoved Derpy yelled.

“This has just moved from Freaky Town and gone straight into the Desolate Desert of Distorted Drug Delusions.” Rainbow Dash said, attempting to give an accurate analysis on this situation. “Can you at least TRY to explain this epitome of weirdness?!”

“Easy!” Pinkie Pie said to the stoners. “You see, a few months ago, I was heartbroken because none of you killjoy ponies would make cupcakes with me! So I decided to look for the most awesome cupcake recipe in the whole entire universe so there would be no way you could refuse my delicious treats! I borrowed a copy of a cook book from Twilight’s library that showed me all these magical recipes, and one of them was used only one time to make the royal cupcakes for a royal party hosted by Princess Celestia herself fifteen years ago, where she showed great appreciation for a stone statue in the twilit evening, and had a wonderful beautiful cutsie-wootsie little baby! She had to give it away to keep up with her royal duties though.”

“Aww, that was such a sweet story.” the touched Fluttershy said despite all the discord that surrounded her.

“I know, but it’s really not important to the story,” said the easily side-tracked Pinkie. “Anyway, the book also told me that if someone were to eat the enchanted cupcakes, they would want to do nothing but make their most ambient ambitions and dreams come true, and they would make their most dark and unrealistic fantasies become their reality! Once I learned about that beautiful tale, there was no way I would let anything curtail me from making those cupcakes, even my own tail! Or the warning that the cupcakes made by the recipe were filled with potent neurological toxins that could cause memory loss, dizziness, loss of intelligence, lack of rational thinking, lack of empathy, lack of genuine concern for exigent matters and important details, and even diabetes. So I took the recipe and made a ton of cupcakes at Mr. and Mrs. Cake’s bakery! After I ate a few dozen myself to test-taste, I knew I had to show every pony in town the error of their ways, so I gave some to Princess Celestia and Luna themselves! They thought they were so good that a decree had to be passed that every pony be required to eat them, or be put under penalty of stoning!”

“So...” Spike said trying to put this together, “this is partly Luna’s fault as well?!”

“Forgive me for withholding my intellect...” the embarrassed Luna said.

“That silly Twilight was completely unaware of my surprise,” said the bouncing pink pony in lieu of the harmony of Twilight’s dissonance. “It wasn’t just because of death that every pony was acting all weird and crazy. It was the fact that they had learned from their mistakes, and they just wanted to make cupcakes with me. They all wanted the world to be united as one giant delicious cupcake, even if meant they had to sacrifice their flesh and blood to do it! It all seemed like a crazy dream, a real dream that you’ve all gotten to envision and live, Dark Sky! You musicians have all had fun rowing your boats down this merry stream, because life is just a dream!”

“Oh thank goodness,” said the relieved Fluttershy, thinking that this was all a dream. “That means I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“You can’t do anything wrong!” Pinkie replied cheerfully. “Life is just a game! A game of fun!”

“But I don’t like games,” said the disheartened Derpy, “they’re hard to understand.”

“The game of life isn’t difficult to understand,” Pinkie reassured. “It may be to that killjoy Twilight, but not for me.”

“Speaking of which,” said Rainbow Dash, “Twilight seemed pretty adamant about becoming the ultimate ruler of the world. How did she end up in a paltry position like that?”

“I was getting a little tired of seeing Twilight and the others working so hard in their own dreams, so I gave her and the others the cure for the cupcakes to wake them up from the nightmare.” Pinkie Pie replied as she informed them of the proficient panacea.

“There’s a cure too?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“You don’t honestly think some pony would be careless enough to prepare a caustic recipe like that and not have a cure for the toxins in it?” the responsible Pinkie Pie accounted. “I made sure to prepare an antidote for the drugs in the cupcakes that was also in the recipe book! I baked it into a separate batch before I made the recipe just to be safe! You can never be too hasty when making cupcakes!”

“But why did they die?” Fluttershy asked. “I know this is just an envisioning of a very realistic dream, but why would waking up from it make them want to surrender their immortality?”

“I don’t know, but I’m curious,” said Pinkie as she pulled one of the curative rainbow frosted cupcakes out of her mane. “I’m going to eat this cupcake, and wake up from this dream for a short bit so I can find out!”

“Oh, of course!” the stoned philosophical Derpy exclaimed. “You can do that because this is a dream, and there’s no such things as real-life consequences in a dream!”

“That’s right!” Pinkie replied, being equally high up in the world. “Live the debauchery, because here I go!”

The daring Pinkie Pie did just as she promised, and ate the cupcake as frosting came all over her face in an imaginative manner. As she was cured, she remembered who she was and recalled everything she had done after she had eaten the drugged cupcakes.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!” Pinkie Pie bellowed as she was restored to her real self.

“Wow, reality must be harsh in this dream.” the fantastic Rainbow Dash said in a wise tone as in a mere forty seconds upon regaining consciousness of real life, Pinkie Pie suffered a fatal heart attack from the mental shock.

“I just wanted to...” Pinkie said as she collapsed to the ground and looked over at Twilight, “have fun, not bring a dawn of sorrow...”

Pinkie shut her eyes, and having lost her immortality, she was now gone as well.

“Wow, poor Pinkie.” Fluttershy said she flew over to Pinkie Pie, feeling sympathy for her. “Even for a dream, that was pretty brutal.”

“What is the point of all this vileness?” Spike questioned.

“At least she’s not in this dream anymore,” said Derpy as she and the others were still stoned and unaware of the fact that Pinkie Pie was just using figurative speech earlier. “At least we don’t have to beat her up.”

“Hooray for peace!” the tranquil Rainbow Dash declared as she created a rainbow over the circle of ponies.

“For great justice!” the black pegasus joined in.

“Yeah,” said the orange pegasus as he walked over to Pinkie, “who would want to do justice to this lovable little character? She has beautiful eyes.”

The orange pegasus opened Pinkie’s eye sockets, revealing that there were two words inscribed on the cartoonish pony’s eyes. From Pinkie’s perspective, the left eye read “YOU” and the right read “FAILED”.

“Now that’s epic!” the legendary Derpy said with kind intentions.

“Well I guess since this is all a dream,” said Luna as this legendary tale of failure appeared to be coming to an end, “I guess we can finally...”

But just as the end was nearing, a hero appeared out of nowhere to end this tomfoolery. It was...Rarity!


	7. The Love of Fluttershy: The Transcendent Fantasy

Part 5: The Love of Fluttershy: The Transcendent Fantasy (Part 2 of 2)

“Aah, Rarity!” Spike cried. “This isn’t what it looks like, this is only a dream!”

“Yeah, you need to go back to bed!” Derpy suggested.

“This is no time for resting!” the restless Rarity replied. “If I didn’t have a membership with the Lunar Republic right now, I wouldn’t have even been able to return here!”

“You’re a member of the Lunar Republic, Rarity?” Fluttershy squealed joyfully. “That’s amazing! Now you can join our vividly lucid dream!”

“Fluttershy!” Rarity shouted. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?! This is no dream! This is just a very distorted fantasy of chaos! Think about it! If you were all dreaming, how can you all be seeing the same dream at once?! This is too weird to be a part of reality, so the only logical solution is that we’re all imagining the same fantasy under a hallucinogenic effect of eating too many cupcakes. You of all ponies should know that Luna, how are they believing such ludicrous tales in your presence?!”

“Sorry, I was tired,” said the fatigued Luna as she gave a reasonable excuse.

“Whatever!” Rarity said in a voice as turbulent as a squall. “Anyways, we need to...”

“So...this is all just a fantasy, not a dream?” the ever-confused Fluttershy asked.

“So I didn’t forget to wake up today!” Derpy shouted triumphantly. “Woohoo!”

“That’s incredible, Derpy!” Rainbow Dash remarked sarcastically. “It takes a genius to know how to wake up in the morning!”

“You said it!” the orange pegasus added. “I could never figure out how to wake up from a good sleep, it just feels like something that just happens whenever it wants to.”

“Right,” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Be quiet, all of you!” Rarity demanded. “I am no longer at your mercy, so shut your mouths! I have had enough of you tomboys in this world! You ridiculous characters need to act like the characters you really are, stop what you’re doing, and listen to explanatory speech!”

“Wow, so assertive,” said the admiring Fluttershy, “you must have something interesting to say, Rarity!”

“Alright,” said the reluctant Rainbow Dash as she pulled some question cards out of her mane, “but your logic better be debatable!”

“You know the drill gang,” the black pegasus spoke for everyone, “just sit back and let the plot of their story unfold.”

“Yeah,” the orange pegasus said in concurrence, “we’ll learn everything about this problem once it’s solved.”

“The mighty always make their mistake by flaunting their powers after all.” the proverbial Derpy said as they prepared to listen to Rarity’s speech.

“Hopefully, this will be the last problem we’ll have to deal with in this incoherent mess of nonsense.” the hopeful Spike predicted.

“Now that I have gotten your attention,” Rarity began, “it’s time to reorganize this unsymmetrical mess of a grimdark fantasy that’s been brought to use by our “beloved friend” cupcakes. Now that Luna’s explained to us all that we’ve all been doing this under the influence of dope, the least we can do is try to fix this mess, and face the consequences of our actions! ….....Fluttershy.”

“Uh...yes, Rarity?” Fluttershy whimpered.

“Come over here.” Rarity requested in a foreboding manner.

“Oh, I’m so so sorry you got killed Rarity,” Fluttershy apologized as she flew over to Rarity fearfully. “I should’ve known those mysterious clouds outside were dangerous...”

“It’s alright Fluttershy,” said Rarity in a strangely calm voice, “this has been just as much as my fault as yours.”

“Wait...you’re not mad at me?” the surprised Fluttershy responded.

“I didn’t have to be so rude with you, nor did I have to run amuck like that over my realization.” Rarity said as she held out her right arm while giving this unprecedented apology. “I know this disaster has been far more of Pinkie’s fault than anypony’s, but can you please forgive me?”

“Oh of course!” Fluttershy said as she shook hooves with Rarity without question. “I’m so glad that I’m not entirely to blame for this! Thank you so much, Rarity!”

“Wow, that went far better than expected,” Rarity thought to herself. “Even after the way I acted, she still trusts me completely. Maybe she wouldn’t have made me incur her wrath if she had seen her own listing in that Death Warrant...”

“What a pure-hearted pony,” the pleased Luna thought, “now I know why she asked me not to show anypony else Fluttershy’s listing after I told her the truth of what’s been going on. She wanted to genuinely apologize to her without hurting her feelings. That is so touching.”

“That is so sappy.” Rainbow Dash said, dissatisfied by the lack of a climatic end to this drama.

“That is so depressing,” said the misinterpreting Derpy, “I thought all the disastrous things that happened in Equestria were my fault! How could everyone lie to me?”

“Don’t worry Derpy,” Rarity said in a comforting voice, “you don’t have to be at fault for anything anymore. Luna will be the one who will take care of everything now.”

“Since this isn’t a dream, I guess I have no choice,” Luna agreed half-heartedly. “Without my sister or an actual government to rule by my side, I’m the only one appropriate for the role of ruling this world...”

“Hold it, you self-appointed autocrat of a candidate!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she read those words off one of her debate question cards. “How exactly are you going to clean up the universe in spite of all this damage done to it? You’ve verified that we’re not living in a dream, so what can you do?”

“As the god of death, I could just cast a spell that would send all of the neutral dead residents of Equestria to the inside of the moon,” Luna proposed. “Since Celestia’s died, chances are she’s probably taken all of her Celestial Republic members to the sun with her, so I guess that’s the first thing I can do as the new ruler of Equestria. Last time I checked you’re all members of the Lunar Republic, right?”

Everyone except for Spike and Derpy replied “yes”, and pulled a membership card with a picture of the moon and writing that said “You were here with Luna.” out of their pockets.

“Oh, that’s what I forgot to do this morning besides fall asleep!” Derpy reckoned. “I forgot to put away my membership card!”

“That’s alright Derpy,” Luna replied, “as long as I know you’re a member, I’ll allow you to stay here. That is the sovereign privilege of the members of the Lunar Republic.”

“Wait,” Spike said in response of Luna’s abrupt explanation, “I’m not a member, so that doesn’t really help...”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to bid any non-members you care for farewell,” said the just Luna as she began to cast the spell. “In order to save this world, mortality and consequences of death must be enabled.”

“If it’s for the sake of restoring balance and order to this messed up world, then I’m fine with it.” Rarity concurred. “Poor Sweetie Belle...at least she didn’t find out about what happened to me.”

“But wait, what’s going to happen to me?!” Spike asked as Luna’s eyes began to glow bright white. When Luna finished casting the spell...the dark sky opened up, and a gust of gravitational wind started to pull all of the inhabitants of Equestria who were not members of the Lunar Republic into the atmosphere! In vain, Spike covered his head with his arms in dread.

Every pony who wasn’t a member, whether they were celebrating their immortality by eating cupcakes made with the flesh of Gilda, Zecora, or any and every other kind of creature who fell victim to Pinkie Pie’s treachery, or just celebrating the fact that life was just a dream, was sucked into the sky by the wind. The voices of many bewildered ponies called out with many cries of confusion, but their calls went unheard by all except for the sky...and the ruler of irony.

“Goodbye, everyone!” Derpy called out as the sky began to close and the wind stopped. “Thank you for the company!”

“Hey, I didn’t get sucked in!” Spike said as he was relieved to see he was still on the ground.

“Of course not!” Luna said. “I only said the dead citizens, and you’re still alive, remember?”

“Oh yeah!” Spike replied upon remembering that forgettable bit of information. “Wait...could that mean...?”

“Heh heh, the moon is only home for the dead, so even I technically died during my struggle with my sister long ago,” Luna reminisced as she gave Spike a smile. “Congratulations Spike, you’re the only one in this entire fantasy tale of death, sorrow, and unimaginable confusion who was completely unscathed throughout the experience.”

“What about that bunny of Fluttershy’s or any of the animals that I saw around her house?” Spike asked.

“While I brought them back straight away, Pinkie...kinda needed some animal skin for her cupcakes,” said Fluttershy as she held out her phoenix feather while rubbing the back of her head with her right arm, “sorry. Stupid me.”

“Just me? Wow...” Spike said as his face lit up. “I guess I really am as strong and lucky as I thought.”

“That’s modest compared to what my reaction would’ve been,” said the envious Rainbow Dash, “who is he?”

“You’re as courageous and resilient as a knight in armor,” said Luna to the dragon who had prevailed through this world which was now occupied by ghosts and goblins. “Can you please just do us one favor though, so there can be a happy end to this tale?”

“Anything for a great princess like you,” replied Spike.

“Don’t forget about me...” Rarity said in a slightly irritated tone.

“That cupcake recipe book was from Twilight’s library, correct?” Luna asked. “Why don’t you go there and see if there’s another copy of it so we can see if there’s anything more we can learn about those vile distortions of childhood innocence?”

“Sure thing!” the good-willed Spike replied as he breathed magic fire on himself, and teleported himself to Twilight’s library.

“Okay everyone, well it seems that there’s nothing really left to- alright,” the awkward and dizzy Luna interrupted herself, “let’s go survey the town now to see the result of all our hard work!”

Everyone stood still in silence with confused looks on their faces.

“Can’t we just stand here and wait for Spike to come back first?” the attention-loving Rarity suggested, still a little annoyed that Spike paid little to no attention after his heroic victory.

“Yeah, we shouldn’t be rude like that...” the considerate Fluttershy agreed.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, the others will accompany him if he comes back beforehand,” the bipolar Luna replied as she got on the cloud she had used to come to the surface with. “I just want to say a few things to you two in private. After all, you are my heroes.”

“Wait, what?” the perplexed Rainbow Dash said as Rarity and Fluttershy looked at the now inexplicably carefree goddess with equal surprise.

“Come on, hop on to my cloud,” Luna said as she offered to let the two ride with her. “There is still much to be seen under this dark sky.”

“Well...I can’t ignore such good manners like that...” Rarity said as she sat on the cloud behind Luna.

“Me neither, I guess...” Fluttershy said in her shy voice as she sat to the left of Rarity.

“Huzzah! The fun has been tripled!” Luna said in an entirely innocent manner as the cloud zoomed away.

“Woah!” Fluttershy exclaimed as she and Rarity both clutched onto Luna to keep themselves from falling off.

“If you’re not going to let us travel in an orderly manner,” the frustrated Rarity said, “can you at least have some courtesy for our safety?!”

“I don’t see why you’re so worried about being safe,” replied Luna as she brought the cloud down to a very low speed, “especially after everything you two have gone through, but we can stop now. Take a look at what Equestria is right now.”

Rarity and Flutttershy looked down upon Equestria, and gasped at the frightening state of it. There were many destroyed cars, debris from destroyed buildings, and blood splattered all over the ground from some of Twilight’s immortal subjects killing each other.

“This is what you saved the world from,” Luna informed as many of the obfuscated villagers who were panicking over the sudden appearance of the tornado that whisked so many ponies away looked up at the cloud wondering what was going on. “The reason I’m so mellow at the moment is because this nightmare is nearing an end, and the god of death Princess Luna can dominate this world with her hooves of righteousness!”

“But wait, how are we heroes because of that?” Rarity objected.

“Yeah, didn’t I help create this problem?” Fluttershy pointed out.

“Exactly!” the dizzy Luna replied cheerfully, unable to think everything through. “But now I can fix everything because Rarity told me about all this! And Fluttershy, you’re even better! If you hadn’t gotten Rarity killed or not helped create all this mess, there would be nothing for me to repair, and I would’ve never realized the joy of being a hero myself! For that, you are the hero of the entire Lunar Republic!”

“Wow, I never thought about it that way!” Fluttershy replied, feeling great about herself as the distortion of the truth began to grow even deeper if that was possible. “I guess there is something awesome about me after all!”

“Oh, beloved members of the Lunar Republic!” the high and mighty Luna proclaimed in a deep voice across the puzzled ponies of the land. “You no longer have to be as confused as a clumsy prince tripping over himself! The antagonists of your lives have been shown great justice through their stoning! The divine heroes of the heavens stand victorious as they are ensconced to the highest places imaginable! We can prevail over this dark sky without a golden sun to shine in its midst, because this is far from our final fantasy!”

“I still fail to fully understand what’s happening.” Rarity said lacking comprehension of Luna’s shallow perspectives.

“Oh, I love you two so much!” the loving soul Fluttershy declared. “You’re some of the greatest heroes and friends I’ll ever know! That’s definitely worth a hug!”

Fluttershy gave her two friends a long and well-deserved hug.

“I won!” the admirable hero Fluttershy said as her epic journey with Rarity had finally come to (at least in her contemporary point of view) a satisfying conclusion.

Meanwhile, there were still loose ends to be tied up...

“What am I doing wrong?” the fame-loving hero Rainbow Dash asked herself as she flew around pacing. “I’m just as much of a hero as those two, and I have the right attitude, and she just left me here?! She better be thanking her lucky stars that I’m loyal, or I would’ve gone after them immediately!”

“Don’t worry Dash, you made the right decision,” said the moral Derpy. “Like you used to tell me, always just sit here and do nothing!”

“Brilliant philosophy, Derpy,” the black pegasus agreed wisely. “You know what they say, if you have a minor role in someone else’s plot, always just sit back and watch it unravel!”

“It’s a secret that helps you stay out of trouble,” the orange pegasus said as he scooped up Rarity’s ashes that were still lying on the ground into his hooves. “It’s too bad so many don’t know it.”

“A lesson well learned!” Derpy said, knowing how to keep a secret now.

“Well, I guess there goes our plushie collection,” the orange pegasus said, disheartened that the Dark Sky could no longer complete that goal because of Rarity’s untimely death. “I was really looking forward to that tea party.”

“What are you looking at?” said Rainbow Dash as she glared at Pinkie’s eyes. “Are you trying to make fun of me? I don’t know where you are right now, but keep those eyes shut!”

“She’s in reality right now for whatever reason,” the black pegasus reminded her, “but I guess in this fantasy, she’s on the moon since she died.”

“I actually like the look in her eyes,” said the meme-loving orange pegasus as he walked over to Pinkie’s body while holding Rarity’s ashes. “they convey a pretty nostalgic and mystifying message. I think that’s worth a little gift.”

The orange pegasus dropped the fire-charred ashes on Pinkie’s chest, as a cloud of smoke recoiled and began hovering over the pink pony and the circle of stone statues.

“Ugh, where is Spike?” Rainbow Dash said as frustrated as a chicken who had just received a parking ticket. “He better not have ditched us to go celebrate his “heroic victory”.”

Soon, Spike reappeared in front of the pegasi with the breath of his magic fire. He was holding a huge book entitled “Cupcakes: The 100% Clean Do-it-Yourself Guide!” under his left shoulder.

“I...uh...found a copy of the cupcakes recipe book at Twilight’s library...” Spike said with a wide grin. “It’s definitely the one Pinkie got her inspiration from...”

“Oh hello Spike, I was just teaching myself something.” Derpy said truthfully, as she had been busy learning how to teach herself something while Spike was gone.

“Same here...” Spike replied as he looked over at the others trying to contain his laughter.

“What’s so funny?” the insecure Rainbow Dash asked, worrying that Spike was laughing at her. “It better not be be, because every pony knows that there’s nothing funny about me!”

“It’s not you Dash,” Spike assured as he held out the book, “it’s this book! It’s hilarious!”

“Is it an educational book?” Derpy asked, having a mind that desired humorous knowledge.

“It’s the greatest thing ever written!” Spike proclaimed. “Come and see!”

The others flew over to Spike and looked at the book out of curiosity. They were all quite surprised and humored by what they read in the book. Only the first few pages described how to make the cupcakes Pinkie was talking about, the health risks of eating them, and how to prepare the antidote. The page after the cooking instructions merely said the following phrases:

“Any one who eats of these cupcakes will live their most unrealistic fantasy imaginable.”

“The fantasy will last for a week’s time, or however long you wish to live it by consistent consumption of cupcakes.”

“Any one whose unimaginable fantasy comes true will know true death.”

“Dark skies are near, please use your imagination carefully and heal your mind when needed.”

Below those phrases was a picture of a rainbow with the word “IMAGINATION” written under it. But what truly gathered everyone’s attention was what was written on the pages after that. The rest of the book was filled with short stories each about ten pages long, short grim and dark horror tales about cupcakes and rainbows apparently written by the book’s previous owners. However, Spike and the others were predictably not scared by the stories, and started to laugh.

“Ha ha ha, like there’s any way that could ever happen!” Ghost Rainbow Dash said as she gawked at how diverse the stories in the book were from her real-life situations.

“What is this, a children’s book?” the black pegasus taunted derisively as he thought the stories about distorting child fantasies were intended for young fillies.

“This is fantastic!” Derpy said being appreciative of fantasy in literature. “I wish I could be just like the heroes in these stories.”

“It’s almost like a fantasy within a fantasy...” the orange pegasus said, still believing that everything they were experiencing at the moment was a fantasy.

“I told you it was hilarious!” Spike proclaimed as happy as an engineer who learned that his grandson had just passed his midterms. “Celestia would’ve found this a lot more entertaining than that cideo she made me take!”

“Alright, I think we’ve seen enough here.” Rainbow Dash said in a foreshadowing manner.

“Where’s Luna, Rarity, and Fluttershy?” Spike asked in his lack of preclusion. “I thought Luna was waiting for me, did I just take too long?”

“Let’s just leave it like that, kid,” Rainbow Dash said as she remembered Luna’s discourteous decision. “Come on, let’s go find her now. She can’t just leave us here waiting forever.”

“I guess the only information I have to tell her is that there’s no need for the cure because this fantasy will only last a week as long as we don’t eat any more of those cupcakes,” said Spike in reminiscence of what he read in the book.

“In that case, I think we can finally wrap up this silliness.” the black pegasus said as he gave his final verse in this confusing fantasy.

“...” the gray pegasus said as he said nothing silently.

“I guess that’s the end of our song.” the orange pegasus said as he looked back at the remnants of this memorably weird fantasy’s antagonists one more time before flying into the night sky with Rainbow Dash and his other fellow pegasi.

“Wait, where is every pony going?” Spike asked as the pegasi disappeared into the sky without warning. “I can’t teleport if I don’t know where Luna is...”

“That’s alright Spike, I’ll just help you fly with us,” said the good-natured Derpy as she grabbed Spike without warning and flew into the night sky. “With my dual-angled vision, we should be able to catch up with them and find Luna. Flying’s easiest when you’re really high up in the sky!”

“Wait, nnnnnooooo!” Spike yelled as they ascended higher in the world like stars ascending into a dark sky.

As they left, unbeknown to them, Pinkie Pie’s body turned to stone as the Dark Sky ascended higher in the world.

THE ENDING OF THE FANTASY

One week later, cries similar to Spike’s could be heard around the world... The heroes descended themselves to the plane of their friends dark realities, as Fluttershy could be seen kneeling down outside her house and crying where her friends laid. The dark reality was that their bodies were dead at the end of this quest, but their consciences were not asleep.

Although the curse of the dark sky has finally been lifted, Fluttershy and her friends could not save themselves from the mental scars inflicted upon their hearts. Fluttershy and her allies’ only hope now is that no one shall ever make an ascension to a dark sky ever again, and that no grim reality such as this will ever be created from a dark distortion of a fantasy.

The Final Enigmatic Words from the Cloud Dragon of the Mist

You’ve done it...You have done it! Do you not know what you have done? You have defeated the dark sky, and proven that you have a strong mind! You were able to last through this grim, dark, and unorthodox fantasy of confusion, for you were not deceived!

You did not fail, for you know the difference between fantasy and reality. You know that no matter where you run or hide, there will always be a dark sky that will try to distort you, and lead you to confuse a dark fantasy with reality. You know that your imagination is a powerful thing however, and that it can only create two kinds of dark rainbow fantasies.

One that distorts by ascending into the dark sky of your mind, confounding your sense of reality, and causing you to finally descend into a realm of discord. The other is one that merely inspires you to create something out of that darkness, and attempt to use your imagination to show them a fantasy that will inspire others to ascend to a realm of peace.

Never show fear to a distorted fantasy, as fear will allow you to become distorted in reality. Remember to always show courage in both reality and fantasy and always be ready to die, for even if you are destroyed, your spirit will always be strong.

You are now the king of the clouds! Thank you hero, you can now bring light across this sky! So long, and have a good night!


End file.
